The inspiration behind the MC Skat Kat character in Paula Abdul’s Grammy Award-winning "Opposites Attract" music video took form when she was a little girl, watching her role model, Gene Kelly, grace the screen.

Abdul, 62, has long considered Kelly one of the main reasons she entered show business, previously revealing she knew music was her "calling" after watching him in Singing in the Rain at just 4 years old.

Abdul launched her career with 1988's “Straight Up,” and kept the momentum going with “Opposites Attract,” both featured on her debut album, Forever Your Girl.

On the PEOPLE in the '90s podcast, Abdul said she wanted to “pay gratitude” to Kelly by creating her own animated character, MC Skat Cat, in the "Opposites Attract" music video.

The idea was inspired by 1945's Anchors Away, in which Kelly danced with Jerry Mouse from the beloved cartoon Tom and Jerry.

“I want to be a cat because Gene Kelly’s been my idol, and he danced with a mouse,” Abdul said, describing her inspiration behind the music video. 

However, there was one problem that Abdul had to troubleshoot with her label. Abdul had already released six singles and producers worried she would "oversaturate" the radio if she dropped a seventh.

“I said, 'I don't care about a single. I just want to do like a long-form video and create my own animated character and give it as a gift to Gene Kelly,'” Abdul recalled.

Thanks to her "tenacity," they finally agreed to let her make the video. Once her request was granted, Abdul got straight to creating her Kelly-inspired character, first turning to husband-and-wife visual arts team Candace Reckinger and Michael Patterson.

“We turned in the pencil sketch test, and I remember I came in with tear sheets,” Abdul said of the creative meeting to talk about MC Skat Cat’s appearance.

“I wanted him to have a fade haircut. I wanted an earring in his ear. I wanted this cat to be so hip and cool and urban. And I wanted him to rap," she recalled.

Her label, Virgin Records, "loved" the ideas, and the rest is history.

“When it was all said and done, guess what? They decided to release a seventh single on my Forever Your Girl album," she added.

As predicted, "Opposites Attract” was an absolute hit, leading to a surge in album sales. Abdul estimated that 8 out of the 17 million copies sold worldwide were attributed to that single song.

Then, in 1990, she won a Grammy Award for the music video.

Abdul also graced the cover of PEOPLE Magazine for the first time that same year. She said she "was shaking” when she finally saw the final product.

“I couldn’t believe that that’s me and that everything was happening,” Abdul told PEOPLE.

Check out more from Abdul's interview on PEOPLE in the '90s on iHeartMedia, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to your podcasts.