Kicking off her career—quite literally—as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers, dancer-turned-singer Paula Abdul became an MTV darling as she shot to superstardom in the late 1980s with her multi-platinum album Forever Your Girl. It was the first of three albums that would bring the sugar-voiced Canadian choreographer sales of more than 53 million records worldwide. After signing on as a judge on American Idol in 2002 (and becoming the "nice" one compared to Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell), Abdul's popularity skyrocketed again, leading to numerous other judging appearances.