Not that long ago, Las Vegas was a place where oldies acts went for a last hurrah.
There's still a little bit of that on the Las Vegas Strip, with performers like Donny Osmond holding a longstanding residency at Caesars Entertainment's Harrah's and plenty of old-school acts from the 1960s and 1970s still kicking.
But the Strip has become a place for the biggest names in music.
Celine Dion and Elton John paved the way for modern residency. They realized that having fans come to them was a lot easier than touring, and they took the stigma off playing an extended Las Vegas Strip residency.
DON'T MISS: Huge superstar makes major Las Vegas Strip residency commitment
Now, seemingly every major current act, from Bruno Mars to Lady Gaga, Miranda Lambert to Katy Perry, and some of the biggest names in music history — Adele, Garth Brooks, and Sting, to name a few — have current Strip residencies.
There's even about to be a major long-term residency at the new 17,000-seat Sphere, where U2, arguably one of the top-five biggest bands of all time, will headline for three months, doing 25 concerts.
Add in acts like Drake and Usher as well as pretty much every big-name DJ and electronic dance music performer, and it's very clear that this is no longer Liberace's Las Vegas. What was once a bit schmaltzy has now become a place where current performers mix with classic acts who are still in their prime.
That will continue as the Venetian will reportedly add one of the biggest acts of the late-1990s and early 2000s to its residency roster starting around Christmas Eve.
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Las Vegas welcomes Christina Aguilera
While Christina Aguilera's hits may be a bit older than Lambert's, Perry's or Lady Gaga's, she has remained in the public eye. That's due partly to her music and at least partly from the years she spent as one of the judges on NBC's "The Voice."
Aguilera has always been a larger-than-life performer known for hits like "Dirty," "Genie In a Bottle," and "Beautiful." She may not have a lot of recent hits, but as Rod Stewart, Sting and even Garth Brooks prove, doing well in a Las Vegas residency is about having a fanbase and a songbook.
Aguilera has both and she'll be bringing her act to Voltaire at The Venetian for a New Year's Eve show (and maybe a show the night before), the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
"Aguilera’s set of prospective dates are in the same range Kylie Minogue has booked to open the club. Minogue has signed on for 20, opening Nov. 3-4 and continuing through Nov. 10-11, Dec. 8-9, and Dec. 15-16. The show breaks then for a production switch as Aguilera moves in," the paper reported.
The Venetian has not confirmed these reports.
Voltaire has seating for 1,000, and Minogue has sold out her run of shows.
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Las Vegas residency competition heats up
When U2 takes over the Sphere in September for a multimonth run, other acts that became famous in the '80s and '90s should benefit. People will likely travel to Las Vegas to see one of the biggest bands in the world play in a unique venue.
That should help Caesars, MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts, Resorts World Las Vegas, and other Strip players sell out shows for nostalgia acts from that period. U2 will create sort of a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats situation.
Acts like Minogue, Boys II Men, Backstreet Boys, as well as some of the bigger names will benefit from having a city filled with U2 fans multiple nights a week.
