Paula Abdul Falls Off Stage At A Concert, Keeps Singing Like Nothing Happened

Paula Abdul, champion, gets back up again Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer October 22, 2018

“The LORD said to Joshua: ‘Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?’” — Joshua, 7:10

“I get knocked down, but I get up again/You are never gonna keep me down” — Tubthumping, Chubuwumba

Veteran performer Paula Abdul proved that she knows how to get right back on the horse — the 56 year-old dancer was on stage in Biloxi, Mississippi, frankly killing it, when she took a fall. Marching towards the front of the stage with the sex appeal and enthusiasm of a URJ song leader, she appeared to misgauge her distance from the lip of the stage, falling face first into the audience.

Now. This is where we must separate fake news from Real News Written By Paula Abdul Fans.

Other publications are reporting merely that Abdul fell on her face, as shown in this amusing, though starting video.

A longer clip shows that though Abdul did fall, she almost instantaneously ricocheted back up with the help of her backup dancers. Hand in a gracious second position and foot beveled, she chuckled, “I’m a klutz, I’m a klutz,” and then went seamlessly back into a full dance routine. “Thank you for saving my life back there!” she bellows.

Paula, thank you for giving us life back there.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO