Rumour has it that pop star Adele is set to become the latest artist to add a Las Vegas residency to her CV.
The record-breaking British singer is in talks for a “lucrative” deal that will have her playing several shows in the US tourist hot spot, joining artists including Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears and Elton John, according to the Daily Mail.
The Someone Like You singer, 33, has been trying to recruit a band, a source told the UK publication, and that she was likely to commute daily from her home in Los Angeles, which is a 40-minute flight away.
Adele was last on the road in 2017, in support of her third studio album, 25, which won a Grammy for Album of the Year and broke a number of chart records, including fastest-selling single in the US for the song Hello.
Her long-awaited fourth album, which was supposed to be released in 2020, has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In March, the The British Phonographic Industry named Adele the UK’s bestselling female album artist of the century, over artists including Madonna, Amy Winehouse and Rihanna.
While it’s not clear yet how much Adele will be paid for her Vegas shows, other artists have raked in millions from their gigs in the city. Here are the five highest-grossing Las Vegas residencies.
Celine Dion
The "queen of Las Vegas", Dion’s two residencies grossed $630.6 million and 4,335,032 tickets were sold across 1,089 shows to 2018, according to Billboard, which published the data that year.
Dion, who has a whopping 27 studio albums to her name, in French and English, began her first four-year residency, titled A New Day …, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in 2003.
She returned in 2011 with her show Celine, which was seen by a reported two million people until 2019, when it concluded.
Sir Elton John
If Dion is queen of Vegas, the British pop star is her able king. John is the second-biggest earner, raking in more than $297.6m across two shows, according to the Billboard data. The Rocket Man singer debuted The Red Piano show, also at The Colosseum, in 2004 and performed for five years. He returned in 2011 with The Million Dollar Piano, which ran until 2018.
John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road world tour, intended to be the last of his career, kicked off in 2018 and was postponed last year owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The tour is set to resume next month in Stockholm, Sweden, with the last show scheduled for January 2023 in New Zealand.
Britney Spears
Recently in the news for her ongoing conservatorship battle, Spears’s Piece of Me residency at The Axis at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino made $137.7m between 2013 and 2017.
In 2019, a second planned residency, called Britney: Domination, at the MGM Park’s MGM Theatre, was cancelled months before it was set to begin, with Spears citing her father's illness as the reason.
“I don’t even know where to start with this, because this is so tough for me to say. I will not be performing my new show Domination. I’ve been looking forward to this show and seeing all of you this year, so doing this breaks my heart," Spears announced on Twitter in January.
"However, it’s important to always put your family first … and that’s the decision I had to make. A couple of months ago, my father was hospitalised and almost died. We’re all so grateful that he came out of it alive, but he still has a long road ahead of him."
While the ongoing conservatorship trial may have shed new light on the Spears family dynamic – with the singer saying she will never perform again if her father continues to have control over her career – the Domination show would have made her one of the highest-paid performers in Las Vegas.
Jennifer Lopez
One of the most successful residencies by a Latin artist, Lopez's All I Have residency made $101.9m and ran from 2016 to 2018 at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino's Zappos Theatre.
The show featured some of the pop star's many hits, including If You Had My Love, I’m Real, Ain’t It Funny and the show’s titular All I Have. A number of celebrities were spotted at the shows, said Billboard, including her then-boyfriend Alex Rodriguez, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian West, Kerry Washington, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas and Ellen DeGeneres.
Last month, The Sun reported that Planet Hollywood and several other venues are battling to get the superstar back on their stages.
"The buzz in Vegas is that at least three different casinos are trying to woo JLo back for a residency," a source told the UK newspaper. "She left her Planet Hollywood residency to do movies and a tour, but now they’re desperate to get her back."
Cher
Having performed the first solo concert of her career in the city in 1979, Cher returned for a three-year residency at The Colosseum in 2008.
Simply titled Cher, the residency earned her a whopping $97.4m across 192 shows, according to Billboard. AnEmmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner, Cher returned for another residency in Las Vegas in 2017, with her Classic Cher tour, which had taken her across the US.
The residency, which was scheduled to continue through 2020, was postponed amid the pandemic.
