'The Way That You Love' Paula Abdul: Multifaceted entertainer brings 'Straight Up Paula!' to Bethlehem
Oct 20th, 2018
By Jim Radenhausen, Pocono Record Writer
EDITOR'S NOTE: Paula Abdul's show, originally set for Oct. 23, will now take place Nov. 23.
Paula Abdul, whose “Straight Up Paula!” tour hits the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Tuesday, knows the sting of incessant tabloid coverage all too well. In fact, the award-winning entertainer may prefer gossipers to, in the words of her 1990 remix album, “Shut Up and Dance.”
On her first headlining trek in 26 years, the dancer-choreographer-singer— celebrating the 30th anniversary of her debut album “Forever Your Girl” and other career highlights — noted that scrutiny heightens “the longer you're in it, been in it — it's been decades for me. You kinda learn to stay away from it. Today, it's like one second, and then a second later, something else is happening. Without the internet, it was the tabloids that would be on the stands for a week until the next. Back then, it still was effective. It still is.”
As with many celebrities, Abdul has endured a fair share of coverage in tabloid publications through the years, including: unfounded claims “Forever Your Girl” had a second lead vocalist; her romances, including a brief 1990s marriage to actor Emilio Estevez; and her “odd” behavior during television appearances, including “American Idol,” among other tabloid-ripe moments.
Abdul, nonetheless, has persevered, and advises other stars — in a social-media age where negativity appears at the click of a mouse or tap of a screen — to “know who you are. I always align myself with passion projects and people around me who are good people, and friends and family. Success is measured differently for everyone. One thing I can say that's pretty universal: you will always fail trying to please everybody. Just do you and be you. Aspire to always keep creating the best version of yourself and not be complacent.”
Complacency would not describe Abdul's three-decade-plus career. Born in San Fernando, California, daughter of Harry and Lorraine M. Abdul, the singer — whose résumé also includes TV personality, humanitarian, actress and entrepreneur — fell in love with dance as a child. While she loves all aspects of her career, seeing a classic 1952 musical sparked her fascination with dance.
“I was 4 years old when I saw ‘Singin' in the Rain,’ so that's my earliest, fondest memory,” said Abdul, who paid tribute to star Gene Kelly in her Grammy-winning “Opposites Attract” video and became good friends with him shortly thereafter. “Dance is something that changes your life. It gets into your heart. You see it even when you watch shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and truly see the fish out of water that have never danced before. You see how it changes their lives. It's such as joy and a heart connection.
“You can dance out joy, disappointment, hurt, anger, whatever you're going through,” she continued. “It's a visual medium, but also the mother of all languages. You don't have to speak Japanese, Italian, Swahili. You just move. It's the universal language. It affects people in a certain way, like any other art form.”
Laker Girl to ‘Forever’ our girl
Abdul, who took dance lessons as a youth, was a high school cheerleader and attended dance camp as a teen. Along with other Van Nuys High students, she appeared in the 1978 musical film “Junior High School.” In 1980, as a freshman majoring in communications at California State University in Northridge, Abdul auditioned for the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers cheerleading squad, landed the gig and soon became head choreographer.
After attending a Lakers game, the Jacksons hired Abdul to choreograph the 1984 “Torture” video, as well as the Victory Tour. “One of my first concerts I saw when I was 7½ was The Jackson 5,” the dancer said. “Ten and a half years later, I was choreographing for them.”
With her choreographer stock on the rise, Abdul worked on videos for ZZ Top, George Michael, Duran Duran and Janet Jackson. For the latter's breakthrough “Control” album, Abdul worked on clips such as “What Have You Done For Me Lately,“ “When I Think of You” and “Nasty,” the latter choreographed in 30 minutes, in front of a bathroom mirror in an apartment Abdul shared with other Laker Girls. Her choreography also graced '80s films such as “The Running Man,” “Big” and “Coming to America.”
Working with some of the music industry's biggest acts, in part, may have inspired Abdul to pursue a recording career, though she was always a music lover.
“I grew up with a mother who was a virtuoso pianist, celebrated in Canada,” she said of her mom, who worked as an assistant to filmmaker Billy Wilder and passed away in January. “I remember loving Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Earth, Wind & Fire, even groups like Yes, the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. I had been in the arts throughout school. I was in theater. I did orchestra. I was a flutist. I grew up with music all around me.”
Abdul also had influences as a child growing up in North Hollywood, California, in a three-condominium area. “It was a very musical place to live. In the middle were members of the Tower of Power horn section.” Other musicians in tow: Michael Bolton, a friend of Abdul's sister Wendy, as well as Toto's Porcaro brothers.
Though it started slow, Abdul's “Forever Your Girl” — released on Virgin Records — became the first debut album both to top Billboard's album sales chart and spin-off four No. 1 Hot 100 singles: career-maker “Straight Up,” the title track, “Cold Hearted” and “Opposites Attract.” The album also featured the hits “(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me” and “Knocked Out.”
Abdul, who “maintained my humble day job as a Laker Girl choreographer throughout pretty much the entire process” up through her first No. 1 single, returned to The Forum in Inglewood, California, home of the Lakers, “like a year and-a-half later, selling out three nights. It was the most exciting, rewarding experience. I knew all the employees from the front office, ushers, vendors. What was overwhelming is that I never stopped working. I was working so hard, and the career aspect was like a bullet train. I didn't know any difference.”
As she dominated music charts, Abdul — who won a 1989 Emmy for her choreography on Fox's “The Tracey Ullman Show” — racked up multiple MTV Video Music Awards and People's Choice Awards, and won a second choreography Emmy for the 1990 American Music Awards, which she opened with a performance of “The Way That You Love Me.”
More hits, hiatus, ‘Idol’
Proving she was no one-album wonder, Abdul followed “Forever Your Girl” — which topped 7 million in U.S. sales — with another chart-topping, multi-platinum effort, 1991's “Spellbound.” The sophomore release housed two No. 1 singles, “Rush Rush” and “The Promise of a New Day,” plus additional hits “Blowing Kisses in the Wind,” “Vibeology” and “Will You Marry Me?”
In 1995, Abdul's third studio album, “Head Over Heels,” failed to approach the success of its predecessors. “My Love is For Real,” the Middle-Eastern-sounding lead single, stalled at No. 28 on the Hot 100, with the album peaking at No. 18 in sales. To date, Abdul has yet to release a fourth studio record, though “I've always loved music, so I'm still working on music,” said the pop singer, who returned to the Hot 100 in the late 2000s with standalone singles “Dance Like There's No Tomorrow” and “I'm Just Here for the Music.”
Following her 1991-1992 Under My Spell Tour, Abdul took a lengthy hiatus from touring. “The reason why I haven't performed in so long,” she explained, “is, after the ‘Spellbound’ tour and making the ‘Head Over Heels’ album, I was in a plane crash landing — a private plane — and ended up having a bad spinal cord injury. It sidelined me for almost seven and a half years. Then I showed up on ‘American Idol.’ I underwent 15 cervical spinal surgeries, the last three while I was on ‘American Idol.’ I had gone through an extreme setback and physical pain.”
Abdul's “American Idol” gig “came about while I was undergoing some of my operations,” she said. “I got a call from my attorney saying ‘there's a show in the U.K. that the kids come in and audition, for this music talent show, and they're singing one of your songs you've co-written. You need to sign off on licensing.’ I kept saying, ‘what show is this’? It started from the very first ‘Pop Idol.” I was a co-writer of ‘Spinning Around,’ which became the biggest Kylie Minogue song. It entered the charts at No. 1. I was then in contact with producers. They said they'd most likely be selling the show in the U.S. and would be contacting me.
“I forgot all about it, and like nine and a half months later, I got a phone call, ‘Fox wants to meet with you,’” Abdul continued. “The timing was perfect, serendipitous. The extent where I was undergoing so many spinal cord surgeries, I kept praying for me to divert my energy away from the pain, direct me more into my passion, purpose.”
During her time on “American Idol” from 2002-2009, “nice judge” Abdul — so nice, that was set to leave the show numerous times during the first season, as it upset her to see contestants' dreams dashed —was part of a template-setting panel alongside harsh Simon Cowell and mellow Randy Jackson. The series, revived in March after a two-year absence, blazed a trail for shows to follow.
“I'm a big fan of any show that's able to take raw, untapped talent and celebrate them,” Abdul said. “I just was fortunate that I was day one involved with this show that changed the trajectory — everything from television to people's lives, including my own, and helped launch bona fide superstars. During the time I was on the show, sometimes three times a week, there'd be 35 million people watching. It changed afterwards. The time I was on it was incredibly exciting.”
In 2011, Abdul was lead judge on CBS' “Live to Dance,” and later that year, joined Cowell and Fox's “The X Factor.” After guest-judge spots on ABC's “Dancing With the Stars” and Fox's “So You Think You Can Dance,” she joined the latter permanently from 2015 to 2016.
Still drawn to fresh talent, Abdul recently appeared as a mentor, alongside host/dancer Jenna Dewan, on NBC's “World of Dance.” Dewan gushed that after seeing the “Straight Up” and “Cold Hearted“ videos, “I was just like, ‘that's what I want to do, that's what I want to be.’” Previously, Abdul joined Dewan for a 2016 “Lip Sync Battle” performance of “Cold Hearted.”
Passion and heart
With her work influencing generations of dancers, Abdul — who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from California's The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball in 2013 — hopes the public, when evaluating her legacy, see her as “an entertainer who taps into the heartstrings of people. One thing I think is my through line and always has been is my passion and my heart, to reach people through my creativity.”
Passion and heart carry over to the California resident's philanthropic work: she serves as an ambassador of We.org, which celebrates the power young people have to change the world, and has partnered with Turnaround Arts, a national program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to adopt P.S. 165 Ida Posner in Brooklyn, New York, and help foster arts education in impoverished schools. In 2017, Abdul received the Music Business Association's Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award.
Abdul's also an advocate for animal organizations, and, in 2014, was global ambassador for the Avon Foundation for Women's #CheckYourself digital campaign in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.
When “Straight Up Paula!” hits Bethlehem, the artist will celebrate her multiple careers with fans, who “will most definitely hear all the hits and then some. Singing and dancing through storytelling. A nice visual feast, lots of mixed media, technology.”
Though she had performed on TV a couple of times since 2009, Abdul appeared on the concert stage for the first time since 1992 when she performed a set at the 2016 Mixtape Festival at Hersheypark Stadium. The next year, she joined fellow '80s/'90s hitmakers New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men on The Total Package Tour, which played Allentown's PPL Center.
Abdul feels it's the right time to tour again “because of all the years that I couldn't. My body and health didn't allow. I'm able to tour now. I got an incredible first taste of it last summer with The Total Package Tour. I've come a long way, from literally not being able to do a career, to showing up seven years later on ‘American Idol,’ still working through physical pain and surgeries. The fact that I'm able to do this now is humbling, and I'm excited to get out there.”
After the first run of “Straight Up Paula!” — scheduled through Dec. 5 — “I have some more dates,” Abdul said. “I also am producing some television projects and am involved in lot of different things.”
When asked if a Broadway show and induction into the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame were among her goals, Abdul gleefully replied “all of that and more. I want to produce some live television shows and also theater. I want to do some more acting. It's strange, but I feel like I'm scratching the surface.”
Filed under: Music