Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, choreographer, and TV personality whose four-decade career has produced multiple American R&B-and-pop-music chart hits, plus her eight-season tenure as a judge on Fox's American Idol (2002–2009). She was born Paula Julie Abdul on June 19, 1962, in San Fernando, California, into an Sephardic-Jewish family — her Brazilian-Jewish father and her Canadian-French-Jewish mother. She started taking dance lessons at age four and pursued dance and choreography through her teens.

Her 1980s pre-recording-career period included iconic Laker Girls cheerleading-dance-team work for the Los Angeles Lakers (1980–1984) and music-video choreography work for 1980s American R&B-and-pop artists — including the Janet Jackson "Nasty" (1986) and "Control" (1986) videos, which established her American music-video-choreography reputation.

Her 1988 recording-career breakthrough came with her Virgin Records debut album Forever Your Girl — which refused to chart for 64 weeks before reaching the Billboard 200 #1 in October 1989. The album sold over 12 million copies worldwide and produced four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles — "Straight Up," "Forever Your Girl," "Cold Hearted," and "Opposites Attract." The 1991 second album Spellbound also reached Billboard 200 #1 and produced the Hot 100 #1 single "Rush, Rush."

Her American TV role came in 2002 as the original judging panel of Fox's American Idol alongside Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson. Her eight-season tenure (2002–2009) made her one of the American reality-TV judging figures of the 2000s. Her 2009 departure from American Idol — over salary-and-contract negotiations — was publicized in American entertainment-industry coverage.

Her name Paula is the feminine form of Paul (from the Latin Paulus meaning "small" or "humble"). Paula has been continuously among the most-popular American girls' names for decades.