Toward the end of the 20th century, the idea of Las Vegas as a place for musicians to thrive was losing its shine. 

Stars like Elvis Presley established and popularized the concept of concert residencies in Sin City during the 1960s. However, Elvis's successful run at the end of his career also made Vegas synonymous with a last resort, a place for musicians whose careers were in decline.

Historically, Vegas concert residencies suffered from an "ageist stigma" and were “widely regarded as a place where aging singers go to die, performing nostalgic medleys of hits night after night for bus loads of retirees staying at one of the many luxury resort casino hotels lining the strip," said University of Copenhagen musicology professor Jessica Holmes.

Presley may have established a foundation for concert residencies, but at the turn of the century it was pop diva Céline Dion who built a castle upon it by transforming what a residency could be. 

In 2003, she launched her first residency, A New Day…, which set a new standard, selling more than two million tickets and earning more than $385.1 million US to become thetop-grossing concert residency in history.

Dion established the blueprint for concert residencies as “a glamorous and profitable endeavor for pop stars young and old,” said Holmes.

Shania Twain, Drake, Alanis Morissette and Michael Bublé have all had residencies there since then, and several artists have announced Vegas residencies for 2026, including No Doubt, Zayn, Jennifer Lopez and more.

Holmes says Dion exemplified a form of musical tourism that “completely revitalized the Vegas musical economy.”

Dion's second residency,Céline, ran from 2011 until 2019. During that time she performed 1,141 shows and raked in more than $296.2 million US. 

Through her choice of venue, her ties to Cirque du Soleil and more, she revived the Las Vegas entertainment scene.

The Colosseum at Caesars Palace

Dion launchedA New Day…at the then-brand new Colosseum in Caesars Palace, a venue with more than 4,000 seats that was built specifically for the pop star.

McGill University drama and theatre professor Erin Hurley said Dion embracing the legacy of Caesars Palace helped bolster her shows: “InA New Day…, she nodded to other entertainers who had been in Vegas, right, so [Frank] Sinatra; she had a whole Tina Turner number,River Deep, Mountain High, which was pretty amazing, I have to say.”

“She took advantage to some degree in that show [with] the numbers that she was choosing, of the good ghosts that were there [who] were associated with Caesars Palace or associated more broadly with Vegas.”

The Colosseum’s design for the show also benefitted Dion by featuring a raked stage (a sloping stage) and seating set on an incline, so that the audience had a better view.

“The audience can see more because [the stage is] tipped up towards you. But the stage in her Caesars Palace theatre was raked much more than what is normal,” Hurley said, adding, "because she wanted people to feel closer.”

Oprah Winfrey

Dionwas the most featured celebrity guest onThe Oprah Winfrey Show, appearing on the program 27 times by 2011, when she was on the show to promote herCéline residency, giving away tickets to the audience.

By attaching herself to a well-known figure with a daytime television audience, Dion was able to reach new fans, create brand synergy and solidify ticket sales for her Vegas shows.

“Oprah Winfrey [was] a totally new way to expand [Dion’s] audience,” said Catherine Moore, a music professor at the University of Toronto. “And those [viewers] would also potentially be people who would say, ‘Wow, this is going to be an amazing show [in a] brand new theatre at Caesars Palace, I've always wanted to go to Las Vegas, I don't want to bet. And this is a reason to go to Las Vegas!’”

“[The Oprah Winfrey Show] knit Céline Dion's story into that of the American dream,” said Hurley, explaining that while on TV, Dion was able to share her journey about growing up in a large family that didn't have much before becoming an international superstar.

Dion settling in Vegas with her family after she'd found success "fits with [a] sort of family and career narrative about how René [Angélil] and Céline take these chances, right?” she said.

"And so that she's always onOprah and recycling this story, that's very familiar to Americans."

Cirque du Soleil

The Vegas presence of another artistic Quebec powerhouse, Cirque du Soleil, helped pave the way for Dion’s extravagant concerts. The circus launched its first productions in Vegas nearly a decade prior to Dion’s first residency, laying the groundwork for bold, large-scale shows.

“We talk about Cirque du Soleil as one of the progenitors of the renaissance of Vegas as a tourist destination, as not just the place for gamblers, but as an entertainment centre,” Hurley said.

Because Cirque du Soleil “doesn’t have animals and doesn’t sell peanuts, it's this feeling of being high-class,” she said. “And so Céline walks into that sort of atmosphere of high-class, high-end entertainment.”

Franco Dragone 

Theatre director Franco Dragone, who directed a number of Cirque du Soleil shows, eventually quit the circus to work with Dion. He designedA New Day…, whichwas labelled “a fusion of song, performing arts, theatrical innovation.”

Dragone successfully included some of Cirque’s aesthetic features in Dion’s residency: the scope of the stage, the dozens of dancers and the projections on a 360-degree screen (a cyclorama) were all larger-than-life aspects that drove storytelling and set Dion’s concerts apart.

“When she does [My Heart Will Go On], the song fromTitanic, there's a moon going over the [stage] so it creates a series of immersive environments,” Hurley said.

The show was replete with “flying acrobats, dancers and dreamy stagecraft with Dion’s powerhouse singing and emotionally emphatic stage presence front and centre,” said Holmes.

“A New Day… looked like a show, right? It was fully costumed and choreographed and [had] set design. There were characters,” Hurley said.

“People were skeptical and thinking, ‘Oh, this isn't going to work, people aren’t going to go, Vegas is where artists that aren't very good anymore go to perform.’ And it became just the opposite,” said Moore.