Paula Abdul and her "HORNY HORSE!"

Great breakdown review!

Awww, i didn't think it was that bad. The weirdest part was when she revealed herself in man drag and ripped off the mustache.

Is it bad, or dated?

This must be around the time the National Enquirer called her "Porky Paula" and it kind of stuck.

What a fatass. Who goes onstage looking like that?

The performance isn't that bad for the time.

I kinda like this song though I concede that it's awful and tuneless. It was the beginning of the end for Paula on the pop charts. It was her first song to fail to make the Top Ten and she'd never reach those heights again.

She is currently on tour with New Kids On The Block and Boyz II Men and she looks and dances fuckin' phenomenally for a 55 year old woman.

"Horny Horns!" not "Horny Horse!"

I still really love me those songs from Forever Your Girl. They sound great when you crank the volume (Straight Up, Coldhearted Snake, The Way That You Love Me, etc).

I don't get why this is supposed to be so awful. It's just standard Paula Abdul. It's dated, but it's 26 years old. Not even that kitschy.

why, it's the study of the chemistry between YOU... and ME!

Well she is NO Paula Goodspeed, that's for sure!

Both Paulas are spectacular!

It's the only Paula Abdul song I like.

I'm partial to this Paula Abdul number from her SPELLBOUND album. I love it when it comes on my iPod as I'm jogging.

r14 love that song, too! And written by John Hiatt.

I don't think the Vibeology performance is that bad but the outfit is ill-fitting, her vocals are out of tune. She should have picked another song to sing. Vibeology doesn't translate well to a live performance because it works better as a studio song. She should have sang Rush Rush to prove to people she could actually sing (and she sang it fine on tour) or Blowing Kisses in the Wind.

She only "performs" (does she sing?) 6 songs on the Package Tour. The setlist does not include Vibeology.

For those who are saying that it doesn't seem that bad "for the time," you're either being overly kind, or you think "that time" was just lots of whack music and performances.

I remember that night as if it were yesterday. I could not believe my ears, but I could especially not believe my EYES. You have to understand that there wasn't a slow deterioration in her looks and shape a la Mariah or even Madonna. It was like one day Paula was a pop princess that boys liked and girls wanted to be like. Sure, she sometimes was a tad squat looking because of her(lack of) height, but the video editors for the most part managed to fool us all quite successfully.

But that night when I first saw the lil tub o' lard in that horrible costume, I had the same reaction as DL fave "Diana Shriek Boy" had when learning of her death. I dialed up my bestie and said "her career as we know it is OVAH. She can never recover from this."

And she never returned to pop princess, object of male lust, Lakers Girl status again. No one could un-see what they saw that night. Now, had she been young, like Britney was in her MTV debacle, a comeback might have been possible. But Paula was pushing 32-34 at the time, and I knew that the boys were done with her and the girls would see her as their mom from that point on.

Poor Arsenio was gobsmacked and I actually felt bad for him to have to comment after the dumpster fire of his former beard ended. It was hideously hilarious and a little sad too.

Paula has a better body now than she did back then.

And the other hits from her first album get all the attention, but The Way That You Love Me is my jam.

[quote]Now, had she been young, like Britney was in her MTV debacle, a comeback might have been possible. But Paula was pushing 32-34 at the time

R17 Paula was born in June 1962, so she was only 29 in that MTV performance. Just turned, in fact. Britney was 3 months from turning 26 during her own MTV debacle in 2007.

My younger brother (who is also gay) and I used to hold karaoke performances with our sister's Barbies (just the two of us), and "Forever Your Girl" was a cassette we utilized a lot. Almost every song on that album was on the radio.

You know what, this thread inspired me to do a little deep dive on Paula. (work is boring today)

I have to say, I have a new found appreciation for her. Sure, the songs aren't all that great, but they are catchy as hell, and I'll be damned if she wasn't at least trying to sing live for Vibeology. Most pop artists then (and now) wouldn't have even given it a go.

Secondly, most of that choreography still looks really fresh and interesting today. Probably because she might be one of the most influential "pop" choreographers of our time. Watch any dance performance in a concert today, and her fingerprints are all over it.

Maybe I really should be treating her like the gift she is... (seriously)

R20 Fair enough. But a 26 year old Britney looks much more youthful than a 30 year old Paula.

Perception is reality

R17 is not exaggerating about how surprising this was. One major reason: this performance came shortly after her "Promise of a New Day" video which S T R E T C H E D her out to make her look tall and thin.

[quote]Maybe I really should be treating her like the gift she is... (seriously)

I know this is a reference to something, but I can't put my finger on it.

I posted this above but it bears repeating: the production of the entire "Forever Your Girl" album is sensational. Very innovative and it still sounds compelling and fresh.

Seriously, if you have a decent stereo and speakers in your car, crank the volume on Straight Up or Coldhearted Snake.

R25, you don't know?!

R27 thanks for the refresher. I vaguely remembered a"treat me like a gift" quote, but I'd forgotten who said it. Until now, I'd also forgotten about her reality TV show. What a trainwreck that was! It's all coming back to me now.

I wish she'd do another album. I really enjoyed her last one some 22 years ago.

Wow, she really was a great dancer. If you can get past the lip syncing you can see how effortlessly she moved onstage. She looked like a natural on stage.

"I dialed up my bestie and said "her career as we know it is OVAH. She can never recover from this."

r17, you sound exhausting.

R24 In Living Color did a parody of that video. They really ripped her apart.

Just yesterday, I walked into a fun resale shop and they unexpectedly had “Vibeology" blaring over the sound system. Reminded me of her legendary trainwreak performance at the VMAs. She was really riding high prior to that, and her performing career never recovered.

The link at R27 is an excellent analysis of another trainwreck!

I remember after the awards show Kurt Loader reported that she looked so bad, like she was wearing a turtle shell.

Rush Rush is still one of my all time favs.

I like her voice. Also, didn't she do the choreography for Madonna?

Whitney was right she really can't sing.

R36 she choreographed The Victory Tour for the Jackson 5, then became Janet's choreographer until she started her own singing career in the late '80s.

It's like a bank of a dozen voices- and none of them are hers.

What in the hell are you talking about?

Who is Paula Abful?

I saw a clip of her on “Wendy Williams” a couple of years ago, she seemed much more lucid than she was during her time on “AI”. There are compilation clips of her on YouTube that are embarrassing in the extreme. And her interview with an obviously skeptical Cynthia McFadden illustrated how delusional Abdul could be.

She looks fabulous.

Janet Jackson wishes..........

[quote]And her interview with an obviously skeptical Cynthia McFadden illustrated how delusional Abdul could be

Could you elaborate, please?

Here

R44 oh wow! That was hard to watch. So much cringe!

Paula really did a impressive job at the 1989 VMA's though. A complicated routine and she pulled if off and made it look effortless.

[quote] What’s it like to go from being a major sex symbol of the early ’90s to a relatively asexual reality-show judge, a comforting maternal presence rather than an object of intense desire?

I admit I always thought of Abdul as a comforting maternal presence but that's because I'm gay. The rest of the article sounds beating down on someone who was deeply unhappy at the time. Even at her lowest, she still always showed up for work and can still dance and perform at a high level at her age.

Paula is younger than Madonna but she at least acts her age.

Abdul has one of the worst voices to make the Top 40

This performance really did kill her career. I was in high school at the time and the next day we were all talking about how lame the number was, how stupid the song was, and how fat Paula was. Her career just vanished after this. Back in those pre-internet days, the MTV VMAs were HUGE. Everybody and their mother watched them.

I can maybe see why Britney's MTV performance is mocked, but this really doesn't seem that bad. Yes, her voice - especially at the beginning - sounds weak, the song isn't great and she isn't rail thin, but the dancing is good and I really like the concept of them all dancing in drag at the beginning.

I really like the song as I do the whole Spellbound album. I also thought Head Over Heels was a decent as well. Her comeback single Dance Like There's No Tomorrow was excellent but by then, she was too old for pop success. It's a shame because I always thought she had at least one more great album in her.

Instead of wrecking her career, Britney's performance kicked off the most creatively successful period of her career.

The whole concept of that performance was so cringe worthy and on par with something high school kids would come up with. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Bump

"I remember Paula's VMA performance like it was yesterday."

Never thought I'd hear ANYONE say this.

this thread inspired me to summon the single edit of “Forever Your Girl”

not only did i enjoy that amazing 1988 fidelity, but i found myself wistfully reminded of people who’ve passed.

not that i miss the 80s one bit.

Yikes. This was as awful as I remember watching it live. I mean, kudos to Paula for trying to inject some old school song-and-dance showmanship into the VMAs, but holy shit was this misguided. She should not have been singing live: this kind of "singing" is why lip-syncing became a thing. And those annoying whoops and hollers she keeps throwing in just make it worse. And as mentioned that outfit was horrible. It was as ugly as it was unflattering. She wasn't even that fat--her legs and arms looks shapely, she just had a bit of a tummy that wasn't corseted (I guess so she could "sing") and the mic pack made her look even bigger. As R46 shows she can pull off a showy number, but she's obviously lip-syncing to a live track there.