Liberace and Elvis at the Riviera on Nov. 14, 1956. Source: Las Vegas News Bureau.
Halfway through her new show at the Venetian Las Vegas, Christina Aguilera breaks into her take on the Mae West smoker A Guy What Takes His Time. Wearing a silver-beaded dress and thigh-high black boots, she struts through the audience posing for photos. “How we doing over there?” Aguilera asks one fan trying to angle his camera phone. “Nice, lovely,” she says of the picture another one takes.
Aguilera performs at her opening night show at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas on Dec. 30, 2023. Photographer: Denise Truscello/Getty Images.
The former Mickey Mouse Club actress, who shot to international pop-star status on the back of such hits as What a Girl Wants and Genie in a Bottle, has played her fair share of arenas in her multi-decade career. But now the 43-year-old mother of two has found a new home, at the recently redesigned Voltaire theater, a 1,000-seat venue that has mostly table seating, in the style of a Parisian nightclub, allowing her to put on a more intimate show. “It’s pretty incredible that I can see the faces of everyone that I’m performing for,” Aguilera said in an email. “It’s a different vibe, compared to larger venues, because you feel the energy up close.”
The Las Vegas residency, an extended run of concerts by a single artist, has never been hotter. On any given week, fans can choose from an array of shows that might include Adele with a string section at the Caesars Colosseum, Lady Gaga performing jazz standards on a piano at Park MGM or Carrie Underwood belting out her country hits at Resorts World.
Underwood’s residency at Resorts World Las Vegas on March 6. Photographer: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images.
In addition to intimacy, the regular venues allow stage designs that would be hard to duplicate on the road. Underwood’s show, for example, includes aerialists, a burning Jeep and a finale performed under a 20-foot waterfall. “We can do things onstage that wouldn’t be practical or even possible if we had to load the show onto trucks and transport it to another city every night,” Underwood said in an email.
Take the Sphere, the $2.3 billion theater that opened behind the Venetian last September. With thousands of LED screens that project images on the outside and inside of the facility, it’s introduced a new level of video production that’s attracted bands from U2 to Phish, contributing to a surge in concert ticket sales in the city. U2’s concerts at the Sphere led Las Vegas residencies with an average ticket price of $390 in 2023, according to data from entertainment market researcher Pollstar.
“When I was a kid, we used to say Vegas was the place old performers go to die, says Jonathan Warren, a Vegas historian and chairman of the Liberace Foundation, which houses the late singer’s possessions. “Now it’s the place performers go to get the highest ticket prices in the world.” That’s not just Vegas hype. Sin City had the top average concert ticket price—$176—of any city in the US lin 2023, up 16% from 2022, according to Pollstar.
Much of that is a result of Vegas’ reputation as a place for travelers to spend freely. The city welcomed 40.8 million visitors in 2023, a 5.2% increase from 2022. Most guests are coming to gamble, eat and see shows, sometimes with a corporate credit card in hand. Spending on the city’s famous Strip reached a record $23.6 billion in 2023.
Over-the-top pianist Liberace is often credited with establishing the Vegas residency in 1955, when he began performing at the Riviera for the princely sum of $50,000 a week. Elvis Presley, whose first Vegas appearance—with a big band and comedian Shecky Greene—bombed, copied Liberace’s sequined look for his extended runs in the 1970s. Regular shows at the Sands by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. cemented their status as the Rat Pack.
Celine Dion established the modern-day residency after signing a $100 million contract to perform five shows a week at the newly opened Caesars Colosseum in 2003. Elton John, Cher and other stars followed, often with shows designed specifically for Vegas. Experiencing top performers away from the huge arenas doesn’t come cheap, however. Tickets for Aguilera’s current residency at the Venetian’s Voltaire theater, which runs through August, start at $200—for standing room. Sitting at one of the tables during her show requires spending at least an additional $250 in food or drinks per guest. “There is an allure to having a Vegas residency, both artistically and financially,” said Aguilera, who noted that the table service at her Vegas performances provides an experience where “everyone can feel VIP.”
The opening night of Wu-Tang Clan’s residency at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas on Feb. 9. Photographer: Johnny Nunez/Getty Images.
Barry Manilow in 2023 broke Presley’s record at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino—once the Las Vegas Hilton—of 637 shows. Manilow, who’s 81, sold almost 64,000 tickets at an average price of $123 in 2023. But acts less like the old showroom staples are gaining ground fast. Soul singer Usher helmed the Super Bowl halftime show in 2024 after a Las Vegas residency that took in more than $100 million, according to Billboard. Dead & Co., a group famous for touring, is having an extended stay at the Sphere this summer. And the Wu-Tang Clan is performing in what’s been billed as the city’s first hip-hop residency, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Bobby Reynolds, who books residencies at Wynn Resorts and other venues for entertainment promoter AEG Worldwide, figures it’s also just a matter of time before a new generation of digital avatars like London’s ABBA Voyage show comes to town. “Certainly that’s a lane that we’ll have in Vegas,” he says.