Paula Julie Abdul born June 19, 1962) is a Grammy Award-winning American pop singer, dancer, Emmy Award-winning choreographer, and television personality. Married to Emilio Estevez between 1992-1994, she is the former daughter-in-law of actor Martin Sheen.
In the 1980s, Abdul rose from being a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA basketball team to being a sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era, then to being a Pop-R&B singer with a string of hits in the late-1980s and early-1990s. According to Abdul, she has sold over 53 million records to date. After her initial period of success, she suffered a series of setbacks in her professional and personal life, until she found renewed fame and success in the 2000s as a judge on the television series, American Idol. Abdul was most recently featured in the seventh season of American Idol.
Abdul is working on a new album with her first single set to be released in mid-2008, and she hopes to have the album out by the end of 2008. Her voice range is mezzo-soprano.