Paula Abdul (b. 1962)
Filed under the name Paula · April 3, 2026
Paula Abdul was a Grammy-winning singer and choreographer before most people my kids' age ever knew her as a judge on American Idol, which tells you something about how many separate careers one person can actually stack up over time if they keep working. Singer, choreographer, television personality — that's three distinct skill sets, three different paychecks, sequentially or sometimes all at once, and I know a little something about needing more than one income stream just to make a life work. Not everyone who juggles multiple jobs is doing it out of hardship the way I have been for twenty years, but the hustle itself, the willingness to keep reinventing what you get paid for, that part I recognize. Choreography is genuinely hard, physical work too, whatever the TV persona might suggest to somebody who only ever saw her behind a judge's table. People who put in decades across multiple lanes like that usually worked harder than the highlight reel ever shows.