Paula Abdul's Childhood

A talented singer and a very stylish dancer with an oomph factor, Paula Abdul is an American Grammy Award winning singer who rocked the music industry with her chart busting tracks. She gained success as a choreographer for many leading celebrities and is known for her tracks such as My Love is for Real and the very sensual Crazy Cool. Paula Abdul has remained to be an icon for many youngsters till date and was recently seen as a judge on the very popular American Idol. Paula Abdul’s childhood was not the easy kind most celebrities would have had, and with her untrained voice, it was perhaps difficult for her to get a break initially in the music industry. Here’s a look at Paula Abdul’s childhood days and how she climbed the ladder to success in the music industry.

Paula Abdul’s Childhood: A glance through her career profile
Paula Julie Abdul was born on June 19, 1962 in the San Fernando Valley. Her father, Harry Abdul, was a former livestock trader. Her mother, Lorraine Ry kiss was a concert pianist. Paula Abdul’s father, a Syrian Jew, was also the sole owner of a sand and gravel business who had grown up in Ohio. Paula’s mother was also a Jew and worked as an assistant for film director Billy Wilder. Paula’s parents divorced when she was 7 years of age. She, along with her sister named Wendy, grew up with their mother in the San Fernando Valley. As a young girl, Paula Abdul always watched the Gene Kelly film, Singin’ in the Rain, and was heavily influenced by this to the extent that she decided to be a dancer.

Paula Abdul thus, decided to take dancing seriously and began her dancing lessons early on, when she was just 8 years old. Her natural flair for dancing helped her to further hone her skills. Paula Abdul was then enrolled in the Van Nuys High School. Here she played the role of a cheerleader as well. Such was young Paula’s talent, that she received a scholarship to a dance camp. She even had a break in a low budget film, titled Junior High School. This was in the year 1978.

From the 1980’s Paula turned choreographer for many videos of several singers such as Janet Jackson. She even released her own dance workout album, which had its base on hip-hop. By the year 1987, Paula Abdul had managed to accumulate a major portion of her savings so that she could have her own singing demo. Her debut album was released in 1988 with her pop album- Forever Your Girl. Following this, she had few albums releases after her debut album. The video, Opposites Attract, won a Grammy Award. An album released in 1991, titled Spellbound, contained many hits that gained her much popularity all over. Although Paula Abdul was not relatively trained as a singer, her dancing capabilities combined with her singing saw her rise to popularity. Her song, Rush Rush, topped the Billboard Hot 100. Many songs followed thereafter. Crazy Cool managed to reach at the number 13 slot and some of Paula’s albums did not really create a stir as expected later on. By the year 2000, Paula Abdul returned to the world of showbiz when she appeared as one of the 3 judges for the reality show, American Idol. Here, she is known to appear in dazzling creations with a variety of accessories, which are custom made. Crazy fans that audition as singers for this show are known to take home some of these accessories given by Paula herself!

Paula Abdul has quite a large fan following who have been loyal fans even during some of her low phases in her career. Here’s hoping this Award winning singer has more chart busting tracks in store for her ever eager fans.