Paula Julie Abdul

Paula Julie Abdul is a Jewish-American artist whose career has crossed several defining areas of modern entertainment: professional dance, music-video choreography, chart-topping pop and television talent shows. Her importance lies not only in her records and awards, but in the way she connected movement, music, image and personality. She helped make choreography central to the identity of a pop star and later used her television platform to guide a new generation of performers.

From the Lakers to the center of music-video culture

Abdul was born on June 19, 1962, in the San Fernando Valley, California. Her father, Harry Abdul, was a Syrian Jew born in Aleppo, raised in Brazil and later immigrated to the United States. Her mother, Lorraine Rykiss, was a Canadian concert pianist of Jewish Ashkenazi background. This combination of Syrian-Jewish and Ashkenazi family heritage became an important part of Abdul’s public identity.

She began dance lessons at eight, studying ballet, jazz and tap, and became a high-school cheerleader and honor student. At 15 she received a scholarship to a dance camp, and in 1978 appeared in the independent musical film Junior High School. While studying broadcasting at California State University, Northridge, she was selected from approximately 700 candidates for the Los Angeles Lakers cheerleading squad. Within months she became head choreographer of the Laker Girls, a position she held until 1986.

Her transition from professional sports to the music industry began when members of the Jacksons saw her at a Lakers game. She choreographed their video for Torture, and the success of that work led to major assignments with Janet Jackson, including the videos for What Have You Done for Me Lately, Nasty, When I Think of You and Control. She also worked on the Jacksons’ Victory tour. These projects helped shape the visual and physical language of 1980s pop. Her later film choreography included sequences in Big, Coming to America, The Doors, Jerry Maguire and American Beauty.

A singer who made choreography part of the hit

In 1987 Abdul used her savings to record a singing demo, moving from behind the scenes into the spotlight. Her debut album, Forever Your Girl, was released in 1988 and became one of the most successful debut albums of its era. It reached number one on the Billboard 200 after 64 weeks, spending ten weeks at the top, and produced four U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: Straight Up, Forever Your Girl, Cold Hearted and Opposites Attract.

The video for Opposites Attract, which paired Abdul with the animated character MC Skat Kat, showed how effectively she could turn choreography and a visual concept into a lasting pop event. She won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Music Video for the work. Forever Your Girl was certified seven-times platinum in the United States and sold more than seven million copies there and approximately 13 million worldwide according to the supplied sources.

Her second album, Spellbound, followed in 1991 and confirmed that her success was not a one-album phenomenon. Its singles Rush Rush and The Promise of a New Day both reached number one in the United States. That year Abdul received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also won two Primetime Emmy Awards for choreography during her career. Although her musical output later became less frequent, she continued creating and performing, releasing Head over Heels in 1995, the workout video Paula Abdul’s Get Up and Dance!, and the compilation albums Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits: Straight Up!.

From the stage to television: mentoring a new generation

Abdul co-wrote Spinning Around, originally intended as a comeback single for her and later recorded by Kylie Minogue. In 2002 she joined the original judging panel of American Idol. The program introduced her to a new audience not simply as a former pop star, but as a compassionate mentor who helped young contestants manage pressure, criticism and sudden public exposure. Her presence on the show, where she remained through 2009, helped establish televised talent competitions as an important route for emerging singers and dancers.

She later served as a judge or mentor on The X Factor, Live to Dance, So You Think You Can Dance and The Masked Dancer. In 2010 she co-founded AuditionBooth.com, a platform designed to connect aspiring performers with casting directors, producers and managers. This extended her long-standing role as a bridge between young talent and the professional entertainment industry.

Returning to performance and expressing Jewish identity

After a long absence from full-length live performances, Abdul returned to the stage in 2016. In 2017 she toured with New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men on the Total Package Tour. In 2018–2019 she headlined the Straight Up Paula! tour, celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Forever Your Girl. In 2019 she performed at the Billboard Music Awards, opened LA Pride and began the Las Vegas residency Paula Abdul: Forever Your Girl. She continued performing and appearing as a judge in subsequent years, and in 2023 joined the producing team of the Broadway musical How to Dance in Ohio.

Judaism is a visible and meaningful part of Abdul’s identity. In 2013 she visited Israel, met President Shimon Peres and celebrated a belated bat mitzvah in Safed at the International Center for Tzfat Kabbalah. In 2014 she joined the Global Shabbat Project. These activities do not define the whole of her professional achievement, but they show how a Jewish-American artist with a global audience has publicly expressed her connection to Jewish tradition and Israel.

Why this legacy belongs in Moreshet

Paula Abdul merits inclusion in Moreshet because her influence operates across several levels of Jewish-American and wider cultural life. She is the daughter of Syrian-Jewish and Ashkenazi Jewish families, an artist who reached international audiences, and a creator who expanded the possibilities available to women and dancers in popular entertainment. As a choreographer, she helped define the music-video era; as a singer, she produced a record-setting debut album; and as a television judge, she influenced how millions of viewers encountered emerging performers.

Her story brings together Jewish family heritage, American cultural achievement and an artistic language that traveled across borders. For that reason, and because her work left a lasting mark on music, dance, television and popular culture, Abdul belongs in Moreshet.com, the archive of Jewish and Israeli heritage, legacy and influence.