Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul (1962-) is a former cheerleader, pop singer, record producer, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality. She was discovered as her being a famous Lakers cheerleader, and soon became a sought-after choreographer in The Eighties. Soon she took up singing too, and became a pop idol. Famous for her dancing skills and unique videos, in the late eighties and early nineties she got six number one hits on the Billboard top 100, and won a Grammy for her choreography. However her career sank after battling an eating disorder and having a long string of professional and personal struggles.
In 2002 she became a judge on American Idol alongside Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell. She's famous for being The Heart of the judges, finding something positive to say about even the worst of performances. Because of her... quirky mannerisms, people speculate when she's drunk. After eight years of judging, she's decided to move on and was replaced by Ellen DeGeneres.
She reunited with Simon for the US version of The X Factor in 2011, alongside Nicole Scherzinger and L.A. Reid. This announcement was met with quite a lot of cheering.
- Animated Music Video: "Opposites Attract"
- Bottle Fairy: Allegedly.
- Break Up Song / Your Cheating Heart: "Straight Up" and "Cold Hearted Snake" were both songs about unfaithful men, the former presumably pre-dating a breakup and the latter being a post-breakup warning to other girls about the ex.
- The Cameo: L.A. Story.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Famously on American Idol.
- The Cheerleader
- The Dead Rise to Advertise: In a Diet Coke commercial. She danced with Gene Kelly (1912-1996) [1] and Groucho Marx (1890-1977). Cary Grant (1904-1986) poured her a Diet Coke when she was finished.
- The Eighties
- Freudian Trio: With Simon and Randy on American Idol. She's the Id.
- Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!
- The Heart: Of the American Idol judges.
- Hollywood Pudgy: Due to her curvaceous figure she has been subject to a lot of this, most notably when Saturday Night Live parodied the video for her 1991 song "The Promise of a New Day" as "The Promise of a Thin Me".
- Nobody Thinks It Will Work: "Opposites Attract"
- Odd Friendship: Following Paula Abdul's release of "Opposites Attract", Gene Kelly took notice of the music video and enjoyed it, later asking Paula over to his place for tea. The pair continued to meet for tea once per week until his death.
- Opposites Attract: ..."Opposites Attract"
- Prince: Donated a really old song of his, "You", for one of Paula's albums.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: In the video for "Opposites Attract" Paula famously duets with MC Skat Kat, a cartoon cat.
- Visual Compression: In "Promise Of A New Day"