Paula Abdul Reveals Why She Loves the LGBTQ+ Community so Much

LA Pride is celebrating Pride Month in syle throughout the month of June. Just ahead of their Thrive with Pride concert event that streamed live on TikTok on June 10th, PRIDE sat down with pop music icon and vocal LGBTQ+ ally Paula Abdul for a quick chat about the power of celebration, her continued legacy, and exactly why the LGBTQ+ community is so important to her.

PRIDE: How do you feel getting back into Pride events after the year we've all had?

Abdul: I am so pleased and honored and humbled that you guys put this wonderful experience together in lieu of what we've gone through. It's so important. It's a celebration and to see so many people coming together for this and the love and excitement. 2 years ago, it was such an experience opening up for [LA] Pride. It was exhausting and so much fun at the same time. I met a lot of new friends, just bringing people together.

I've been blessed and grateful that I started into my career with being a choreographer and the importance of the gay community from way back when I started. I was 17, 18-years-old. The importance of being there for all my dancers and going through the trials and tribulations of being gay and coming out to their families and me helping in many ways and just feeling honored that I could be a part of mending families. My dancers, to me, have been my children, my precious gems I have nurtured. We're family. Through thick and thin. 

That's the power of music, that it can reach people all over the world. It gives little baby gays, like me when I was first coming out, a reason to dance. 

I love that you said baby gays. [laughs] It's the truth though. If it weren't for music and for dance, life wouldn't be good. Both music and dance open an incredible and magical doorway for people to be able to be their authentic selves. 

We're here today for TikTok, and it's really cool thinking about your music reaching these new ears. 

It's crazy. My music has been out for over 30 years and I just literally got off the phone with a dance studio in New York. It was their big concert tonight and they're doing an hour and a half of my music and my choreography. It's these young girls, 40 of them I believe. I did a zoom with them just now because they were getting ready to go on stage and I was just... The fact that they studied me, they've literally studied, and some of them are producing music and doing remixes of my songs and they're dancing to my music, it's just been incredible. 

Are there any LGBTQ+ artists you're into right now? 

I love Todrick hall. We've become good friends and we're going to collaborate on a song together. 

Check out the rest of LA Pride's June festivities here, including the Pride is Universal Theme Park Event where guests can enjoy access to exciting thrill rides and attractions after hours at Universal Studios as well as live DJs, character photo ops, and more.