Jack Canfield, the fabulously successful co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, has said, Almost everything we’ll ever do in life that is really powerful, that really produces a result in our lives, the quantum leaps to a new level requires us to be something uncomfortable. It takes risk to achieve. It’s often scary. It requires something you didn’t know before or a skill you didn’t have before, but in the end it’s worth it.
The beautiful and talented Paula Abdul, is a huge winner who has achieved huge results doing things that others are uncomfortable doing. Paula is, without a doubt, one of the world’s most recognized names in the entertainment business. Her career has won awards and broken records in every area she has ventured into, including music, dance, choreography, animation, and drama. Her remarkable career shows no sign of slowing down. Most recently Paula is known to the world for her role as, ‘the judge with a heart,’ on TV’s American Idol.
For the past seven years she has shared the panel with Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell on this mega-hit show that is routinely watched by more than 35 million people each Tuesday and Wednesday night during Idol season. Paula’s extraordinary music career is exemplified by worldwide album sales exceeding 53 million records, including two number-one albums, six number-one singles, a Grammy Award, seven MTV awards, two Emmy Awards, two People’s Choice Awards, and two Kids’ Choice Awards.
Paula even has her very own star on Hollywood Boulevard. She also continues to honor her roots by running dance and cheerleading camps, competitions, and scholarship programs throughout the country, and she has never forgotten her first break as a Los Angeles Laker Girl, which, of course, made her the world’s most famous cheerleader. Most recently, Paula has expanded the ‘Paula Abdul’ brand with new ventures such as a successful jewelry line and a forthcoming fragrance line.
She introduced her Paula Abdul Jewelry Collection on QVC last April to record-breaking sales, and is now taking this hugely popular line to the UK. In addition, there is a biography coming soon, and she has been back in the recording studio to create a much-awaited new single, her first in over a decade. On top of all of this, she contributed the preface to a very exciting new book that was just released, Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, a collection of inspiring and heartwarming stories by ‘American Idols’ from every season, and their fans.
Interviewing Paula for this article was transformational mentor, Debra Poneman, who is co-author of Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, founder of Yes to Success™ seminars, and an award-winning keynote speaker, seminar leader, and record, radio, and TV personality. Be sure to get your very own copy of Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul today by going to www.HealthyWealthynWise.com/AmericanIdol
DEBRA PONEMAN: I am so happy to be here. It doesn’t get better than this.
PAULA ABDUL: Thank you so much for having me. This is a real joy, treat, and pleasure.
DEBRA PONEMAN: I just want to say that I had the pleasure of meeting Paula and working with her on Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul and, frankly, I have to say, Paula, that I completely fell in love with you, with your beautiful, sweet heart and just your charming personality. I would just love to know, as I’m sure everyone else would, the story of your entire journey.
If you don’t mind, can you please start out by sharing with us, what were your passions when you were a young person? When you were a child, what was it that made you happiest?
PAULA ABDUL: The fondest and most clear memory I had was when I was four years old and I was watching Singing in the Rain on television. I was watching it with my mom and my dad and my sister, Wendy, and I fell in love with a man named Gene Kelly. I remember scooting up really close to the TV, and touching the TV whenever he appeared, and I said, That’s my dad. My father said, No, that can be your TV dad, but I’m your dad.
I remember that I had this fantasy and fixation on Gene Kelly, Singing in the Rain, and then that just sparked my love for MGM musicals. I can honestly say that Gene Kelly was my first idol. I remember, from that moment on, I could not get enough of finding out when the next musical would be on television. I just started studying the world of dance through my eyes watching television.
It wasn’t until I was seven-and-a-half years old that I had my first dance class, and it was ballet. I do remember living in these condominiums in North Hollywood, California; and even though I was only five years old, I was conducting all of the kids in the condominium. I would put on little musical numbers and invite all the people in the condominium to come watch. I was all of five years old, so I was into directing and choreography before I even knew what that meant.
DEBRA PONEMAN: That is so fantastic, and you know you have something in common with Sanjaya, because Singing in the Rain was his favorite musical as a child, too. I don’t know if you know that.
PAULA ABDUL: I did. I did, we both shared a moment on that.
DEBRA PONEMAN: That’s wonderful. You mentioned your dad, and for many of our listeners, their home environment growing up was either their biggest challenge or their biggest support. When you were growing up, did your parents encourage your dreams or did they discourage them?
PAULA ABDUL: It’s any interesting juxtaposition, because my parents divorced when I was at the tender age of seven, and that was a very big experience for me. The good thing was I never saw, or witnessed, my parents argue, but that also was very confusing because I didn’t understand why this was happening. At a very impressionable age, I was caught in between learning that we had to conserve money, and I knew not to ask for outside activities.
Dance required more money to take lessons, and so it was a very awkward time for me, and I knew that I shouldn’t ask for that. I worked out a different plan. When I was carpooling to go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the two girls I carpooled with, they had ballet class, so I was always their student who was waiting for their class to be finished, but my feet would be moving.
I had a photographic memory. I’d come home, and while my mom was cooking dinner, I would be in the kitchen practicing holding onto the kitchen sink as my ballet bar. It was then that the teacher offered for me to come into class, because she saw that I was doing in the waiting room anyway, and I agreed to clean the mirrors and clean the floors for my classes. I didn’t have to tell my mom or ask her for money, and it worked out really well for a while. It was a hard time, and it was my biggest challenge, but I’ve always been one to overcome those obstacles.
DEBRA PONEMAN: Yes. We’re going to talk about that a little bit later in the interview: What is your secret to overcoming obstacles? It sounds like your mom did what she could to support you with limited resources, but on the emotional level she was behind you?
PAULA ABDUL: On the emotional level, she was absolutely behind me, but my mom is more the kind of woman who displays the ‘tough love.’ While I was growing up, my mom worked in the whole video system. My mom was the personal assistant to Billy Wilder who was a true genius, an Academy Award-winning director. My mom always saw these young women, young girls, trying to make it and how heartbreaking it was, that it was very difficult to make it, so she wasn’t that encouraging, although she knew that I had talent. She basically said, If you’re going to do this, you’re going to have to do it on your own.
DEBRA PONEMAN: You sure did. How did you make the transition from not having the resources to support all of the lessons that so many of the kids were able to take, yet you certainly created a great career, the first step being becoming a Laker Girl. How did that transition take place from your childhood until, I guess, that would be your first professional job?
PAULA ABDUL: It was my first professional job, absolutely. I was accepted into the Juilliard School on scholarship in dance with one of my best friends in school, in high school. When I went on this trip to New York to see where I could possibly live, it was really an eye-opening situation. I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, then in a home and the condominiums. I thought the space we lived in was really big, and then I got to New York, and I thought, Oh my God.
The living situation was very, very small and very expensive, and just being in the big city scared me. I decided not to go. I was so depressed, thinking, What did I do? I just ruined a chance at having a career. I went to a commuter school, which was Cal State Northridge. It was then that I realized, I want to dance, and I don’t have an agent. You can’t get an agent unless you get a job booked. What do I do?
I heard about Laker Girl auditions, and I was currently working as an instructor, a camp instructor, for cheerleading camps. A couple of the instructors were Los Angeles Laker Girls, and they got me to audition. I was number 786. I knew that, traditionally, cheerleaders are tall and they’re leggy, blonde and blue-eyed. Here I was all of five-foot-one-and-three-quarters, brunette, I didn’t fit the mold.
I wore the loudest uniform; I can still see my uniform. I wore a red-and-white striped leotard, with blue leg warmers, and I probably looked ridiculous, but I stood out. I was one of the few who made it. I remember being in a carpool of seven girls, and I was the only one who was kept until the very end. Then I was a Laker Girl, and I thought, Oh my God! There were only 12 open positions, and I made it.
It was like my first chance at being able to have a job while I’m going to school, while I’m going to college. I’ll be able to dance. I’m a big fan of the Lakers, and so was my dad. This is fantastic! Who would have ever thought that would be my entry, my foray into the business?
DEBRA PONEMAN: I might add, still the most famous ever Laker girl, and that’s the truth! When you think of Laker Girls, you think of Paula Abdul. Then, from being a Laker Girl, you went to become an award-winning choreographer. Can you tell us about that transition?
PAULA ABDUL: Certainly. Right at the very beginning of the Laker Girl season, the basketball season, the head Girl, she moved to Sacramento. I was asked, as a rookie, to take over and form a dance squad. I only had about two girls on the squad who had formal training, any formal training, so I was working with mostly non-dancers. I didn’t get rid of the pom-poms, so to speak, but I did put them down, as far as getting them out on the floor.
I really made it a great dance team, and from that what happened was, people who were season ticket holders would ask for the girl who choreographed the Laker Girls to do some corporate events, like for Nike, and I’d do one of their shows. I’d have the Laker Girls perform. I started getting little jobs in some national commercials, and then my first big break was that I got to choreograph a little move called, Can’t Buy Me Love, with ‘McDreamy,’ Patrick Dempsey; it was his first movie.
I did this choreographed number called, ‘The African Anteater Dance,’ which so many people know it’s not even funny. That was my first film job, and then what happened was that some of the season ticket holders were the Jackson Five Brothers. They were getting ready to do a big major reunion tour with Michael, and their choreographer fell out. It was a big launch starting with the Motown 25 special. I got a chance, and I wasn’t quite 18 years old yet.
I was 17-and-a-half, and here I was now choreographing the Jacksons, doing their reunion tour, their videos, and their first live show experience. That was my first big, big break.
DEBRA PONEMAN: That’s fantastic, and then you went on, I know, to win two MTV video awards. Was that for your choreography?
PAULA ABDUL: For my choreography first with Janet Jackson, and then my own videos. Then I won choreography award for my work with ZZ Top and Duran Duran, and I went on to choreograph practically every major recording artist. I did their tours. I did their videos and their live appearances.
DEBRA PONEMAN: Did you ever get to work with Gene Kelly?
PAULA ABDUL: I finally got to work with my idol, Gene Kelly, and have tea with him during the last two years of his life.
DEBRA PONEMAN: That is just beautiful.
PAULA ABDUL: I dedicated my own video, which was where I created animation, where I danced with an animated cat, Skat Kat. I dedicated it to him. He was my mentor, and I wanted to dedicate that animation to him. When it got to him, he contacted my agent and asked me over for tea, so it was Tea on Tuesday. I arrived at his house like an hour-and-a-half early.
I was sweating in my car because I couldn’t believe I was going to meet the man of my dreams. When I met him, it was as if we had always known each other, just two dancers just conversing back and forth. It was fantastic.
DEBRA PONEMAN: That is fantastic.
PAULA ABDUL: Then I knew, I knew in my heart of hearts. I had just finished doing an award-winning commercial with Elton John, where we both danced and they juxtaposed the old icons, like ‘Satchmo,’ Jimmy Stewart, James Cagney, and all of these iconic people. I knew, I just had this feeling, that next they’ll ask me to do a dance commercial, and I’ll get to dance with Gene Kelly. It was 48 hours later, I got the phone call.
They wanted to do a dance spot, and Gene Kelly okayed and approved for me to dance and use the footage of Anchors Away, because that’s when he danced with the animated mouse. Because I dedicated my animation from ‘Opposites Attract,’ he felt that would be the right footage, so they took out Frank Sinatra and I was plugged in. I would rehearse with Gene Kelly, and he was a stickler.
He’d count, One, two, three, and, and he’d say, No, Paula. On ‘and’ you have to look to the left because you’re looking at me. It was fantastic, and through that relationship I was choreographing the Academy Awards that year, and got an Emmy nomination. The coolest thing of all is I surprised all the dancers, and brought Gene Kelly down to the rehearsals. When I tell you that half of my dancers fainted and the other half of them were in tears, I’m not lying.
DEBRA PONEMAN: I can absolutely believe that. It’s such an amazing story because I know that Janet teaches, in her Passion Test, that when we put our intention on something, it’s going to appear in our lives. Maybe not in the timing that we think it’s going to appear or we want it to appear, but if we desire it enough, it is going to appear. Here you were as a little 4-year-old in love with Gene Kelly and Singing in the Rain, and then in the final years of his life, you’re having tea and dancing with him.
PAULA ABDUL: It’s true.
DEBRA PONEMAN: It’s a beautiful lesson for all of us to learn to not give up on our dreams. Speaking of your dreams, after you had your career of award-winning choreographer, you had yet another career as a Grammy Award-winning singer with over 53 million records sold. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?
PAULA ABDUL: First I want to say that the most interesting and peculiar things about my career has been that most people dream of having, getting, the chance to reach millions of people and attain superstardom. Never in a million, trillion years did I ever think that that would happen. I dreamt it, I wished for it to happen, I worked really hard, but it’s interesting how I’ve been told my whole life, You never will make it. You’re too short, you’re too this, you’re too much that.
You’re not enough this. You never, never will. The interesting thing in my career is I have not only overcome that, but what ends up happening is I make people forget that I even had that career. When I heard, You’ll never make it as a Laker Girl, and I did; and Oh, you think you’re going to be a choreographer; yes, that’s very funny, Paula, and I’d go on to become an award-winning choreographer, when it came time, I didn’t want to tell anybody that I was secretly recording demos.
I knew people would tell me, You’re crazy. Sure enough, I would quietly work, I would work on my choreography and I was working on The Tracey Ullman Show, which was a brand-new show for a very small network at the time, which was FOX. It’s so funny how I’ve come full circle. FOX was a brand-new network, which originally had the show Cops, Married…With Children, and 21 Jump Street.
There was a brand-new show called ‘The Tracey Ullman Show. This man who became my second mentor, his name is James L. Brooks, who was one of the most famous and beloved writers and directors of all time, he made me fall in love with television and doing live performance on TV. I won two Emmys working on that show. I would quietly work on Tracey Ullman, be at the table readings at 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning. I’d work until 2:00 in the afternoon.
I’d leave, I’d go to Universal Studios, and I’d work on the George Michael ‘Faith’ tour. I’d go two doors down after that, work with Janet Jackson on her tour, and then at midnight, I’d quietly go into the recording studio, and I’d work and record until about 5:00 in the morning. Then I’d park my car at around 6:00 in the morning at the FOX lot. I’d sleep an hour-and-a-half to two hours and start my day all over again.
I did that for quite some time, and I didn’t want for people to know that I was recording an album in case it didn’t work out. I didn’t want to lose my day job as a choreographer, so I kept it very quiet. No one knew except for my closest friends and my family. My album came out to no fanfare, no publicity, nothing really happened. I heard whisperings that I was going to be dropped from the label.
I’ve got to tell you, before all this-I’m jumping ahead-I was given $68,000 to make my album. You can’t record a track nowadays for $68,000, let alone that I had nobody really assigned to help me make this record for $68,000, so I used a lot of the artists I worked with in choreography, and I bartered deals with them. I’d say, Look, I will choreograph your next video for free or your next tour, or the rest of it, for free if you write me a song.
I literally did that with many artists, so it was like a potpourri of favors and discounts and things like that. I made my album and then it came out, and I’ll tell you the story. When my mother was working for Billy Wilder, my mother told Billy Wilder, My daughter now is going to record an album. My mother’s assistant, who was like 19 years old, said, My boyfriend’s an aspiring songwriter.
My mother said, Sure, you can give me some demos; that’s fine. My mother called me up one day, hysterically laughing, and she invited me over for chicken, for dinner, as my mom cooks the best chicken. I’m having chicken dinner with my mom, and she plays me this 8-track demo which was so funny. It was like you could hear someone plunking on their computer and singing completely off tune. It was the song called ‘Straight Up.’
My mom and I were laughing hysterically, and my mother took it out of the cassette recorder and put it in the trash, and she said, What am I going to say to her? I said, I don’t know, but I went back in the trash and pulled it out, and I said, There is something very, very interesting about the song. It’s quirky. My mom’s saying, How can you hear? He’s completely off-key. I’ve got to let everyone know, my mother is Canadian, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and my mother is a virtuoso.
She is an amazing, genius pianist, and my mother went on to play for Canadian operas and radio. My mother was born with perfect pitch. It’s very annoying because my mom can hear everything, and she passed that on to me. Thank you, Mom. I’ve got to tell you, this song was ridiculously embarrassing and funny. How was I going to convince the record company? Let me tell you something, I barely could convince them. I told them I would record two songs that they wanted me to record, that I didn’t enjoy, in the hopes that they’d let me record this song, ‘Straight Up.’
They did, and they only promised to pay a measly $5,000 for production, so I recorded that song in a studio apartment in the shower, and if you listen really hard to the master recording, you can hear someone banging on the wall saying, Shut up! That is the truth. There is a lot of magic to making that first album that nobody was buying, and there was no air play.
When I heard that they were going to drop me, I bartered a deal with the marketing department, and I purchased a whole bunch of albums and sold thousands of them at my dance and cheerleading camps. I made every one of my instructors teach the routine off of my album, I set up shop, and sold tens and twenties of thousands of albums in one summer. It got me on the list of Billboard with no air play.
I’ve always been one of those girls who just keeps getting the knocks and the opportunities, and then I kind of get knocked down on my butt, but I get up again and I just move forward. I went on, my rookie year, my first album, and I sold 18 million.
DEBRA PONEMAN: What an incredible story. There are so many people who listen to these Healthy Wealthy nWise interviews, they are people with aspirations to be writers and to be recording artists, and what a great lesson that if someone tells you ‘it isn’t going to work,’ you figure out a way to make it work.
PAULA ABDUL: You have to. If it’s your passion, your heart and your mind won’t let you stop. It just won’t let you stop. You’ve got to find a way to make it happen.
DEBRA PONEMAN: Skipping ahead a little bit, you’re obviously a household name in the US and around the world, and then you were tapped to be a judge on the number-one show in television history. How did that happen?
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