Paula Abdul Net Worth: How Does She Make Money?

Paula Abdul Net Worth

It’s estimated that Paula Abdul has a net worth of $30 million as a dancer, singer, actor, choreographer, and producer. While her career spans four decades, it includes everything from choreographer to pop artist to reality TV celebrity.

Paula Abdul Early Life

Paula Abdul was born on June 19, 1962 in the city of San Fernando, which is located in the state of California. She began her training in dance at a young age and went on to attend Van Nuys High School, where she was both a cheerleader and a high achiever academically. The year 1980 marked Abdul’s first year as a student at California State University, Northridge.

It was during her first year of college that she was selected from among 700 applicants to be a cheerleader for the illustrious Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. She is known as a “Laker Girl.” After waiting another year, she was promoted to the position of head choreographer. Within a span of only six months, she was able to successfully launch her careers as a dancer and choreographer, at which point she dropped out of school.

Paula Abdul Career

After being spotted by some of the band members while they were at a LA Lakers game, she was hired by The Jacksons to choreograph the music video for their song “Torture.” This was her first huge work. In the end, she was responsible for the choreography of their “Victory” tour. In the film “Big,” which was released in 1988, the scene with Tom Hanks’ character and the huge keyboard was choreographed by Abdul.

In 1987, she utilised the money she had saved up to make a singing tape. As a result of this demo, she was signed to Virgin Records. Even though Abdul was a skilled dancer and choreographer, she lacked any formal training as a singer; hence, she decided to take voice lessons to assist her enhance her singing voice.

Her first studio album, “Forever Your Girl,” was released in 1988, and it went on to become the most successful debut album in the history of music at the time it was released. In 1989, it was awarded the platinum certification after topping the Billboard chart for a total of ten consecutive weeks. Paula was awarded her first Grammy for “Opposites Attract,” the music video for which she not only directed but also choreographed the dances.

Abdul’s career was put on hold for personal and health-related reasons, and although her 1995 comeback single “Head over Heels” enjoyed moderate commercial success at the time of its release, it ultimately became her least successful album in terms of sales.

In 1997, she collaborated on the writing of the song “Spinning Around,” which was supposed to be the lead single for her big comeback, but Kylie Minogue ended up recording it instead. During this time, she also made a few of exercise DVDs and worked as a choreographer for a number of film and stage productions, including the cheerleading scenes in the 1999 film “American Beauty.” By the year 2000, she was no longer employed by Virgin Records in any capacity.

Paula Abdul American Idol

In the year 2002, Abdul landed a job on the Fox reality competition show “American Idol,” where he served as one of three judges. As a judge and a mentor, she was lauded for the sensitive and caring manner in which she conducted herself, particularly when contrasted with the abrasive manner in which her co-judge, Simon Cowell, conducted himself.

Their contrasting approaches led to intense and entertaining confrontations live on the air. Paula was reporting for “Entertainment Tonight” in addition to her job on “American Idol,” which she was also doing at the same time.

Abdul had his first appearance on the chart in more than a decade and a half with a track titled “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow,” which was released in 2008.

After eight seasons of “American Idol,” Paula decided to leave the show in July 2009 due to disagreements with her remuneration. She was bringing in $5 million per season, but she was looking for as much as $20 million for her comeback. Ellen Degeneres took her position after she was fired.

Paula Abdul Other TV Work

In May of 2011, it was revealed that Simon Cowell’s American version of The X Factor would feature Abdul as a judge alongside himself for the first season of the competition. On the other hand, she did not come back for the second season, and Demi Lovato was cast in her place.

In 2013, she served as a judge on the episode of “So You Think You Can Dancing” that was dedicated to a dance competition. Subsequently, she was selected to serve in a similar capacity on the Australian adaptation of the show. Later on, Abdul became a permanent judge for the American version of the show; however, he only served in that capacity for a total of two years.

Paula Abdul Return To Performing

On August 6, 2016, at the Mixtape Festival in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Abdul gave a performance that was the first time in the past 26 years that he has headlined an entire show. It had been 25 years since her last tour until she joined New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men on their homecoming tour in 2017.

This tour was her first tour since 1993. They performed in a total of 47 shows as a group. The “Straight Up Paula!” tour, which Abdul began in October 2018, consisted of a total of 27 performances across the country. On August 13, 2019, Paula started her first residency at a Las Vegas venue, which was titled “Paula Abdul: Forever Your Girl,” and it lasted through January 2020.

Paula Abdul Personal Life

As a youngster, Abdul was diagnosed with bulimia and received treatment in 1994. For example, Paula claimed to have been assaulted at a party in April 2006 when she was forced to the ground and punched by a man who had grabbed and shoved her against the wall. She had a concussion and spinal damage.

In the early morning hours of November 11, 2008, a 30-year-old woman named Paula Goodspeed was discovered dead in her car, the victim of an apparent overdose outside Abdul’s Sherman Oaks, California house. Abdul had been the target of Goodspeed’s intense admiration, which had bordered on stalking.

Emilio Estevez was Paula’s husband from 1992 to 1994. Brad Beckerman was her husband from 1996 to 1998. Neither she nor her husband are parents. She is a devout Jew who also has a big soft spot for animals.