Las Vegas has become a destination for the biggest-name artists. If you play a residency on the Las Vegas Strip your fans come to you.
Huge acts including Garth Brooks and Adele, who both have Caesars Entertainment residencies, and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, who have long-term engagements with MGM Resorts International, get to tour without going anywhere. That's cheaper as sets don't have to be loaded into buses and crew members can be locals who don't require hotel rooms.
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It's also easier on the artists. Yes, big names like Adele, Lady Gaga, Garth Brooks, and Bruno Mars don't exactly fly coach, but even a private plane isn't as nice as a luxurious Caesars or MGM suite or villa.
In addition, because tourists pile into the Las Vegas Strip year-round, even nostalgic residencies like Boys II Men and Donny Osmond have a steady stream of fans coming in to buy tickets to their shows.
In recent years, Las Vegas has also hosted shows — not exactly residencies — that keep the music of long-dead artists and defunct bands relevant. Big names like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston have appeared via hologram and Elvis Presley has been impersonated in various Strip shows.
Now, one of the biggest bands of all time is coming to the Las Vegas Strip, but not as a hologram, or with actual members. Instead, it's something completely different that could be a model for giving music's biggest names a way to perform well beyond normal.
Image source: Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Caesars Entertainment
Abba coming to the Las Vegas Strip
Abba has not played a live show since 1982. The band has remained popular and its music has been kept relevant by the "Mamma Mia" musical and movies. In many ways a jukebox musical, in which singers perform a band or artist's hits with a loose story, has been the traditional way to keep a legacy band's music relevant.
"Mamma Mia" had a run at MGM's Mandalay Bay, but now the Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that the band plans to bring its "Abba Voyage" show to the Strip. That's a completely different kind of concert, where avatars created using motion-capture stand in for the band.
Think of it as the 2024 version of the Chuck E. Cheese band with a much higher level of technology and more realistic performances.
Abba has created something new
With their show, which has a permanent installation in London playing at an arena created specifically to host the unique performance, Abba has created something that can be brought to other markets.
"Located at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, the arena is purpose-built for Abba’s never-before-seen concert," the venue said on its website. "The location offers easy access to transport links, local shops, plenty of food & drink options, along with a variety of seating and standing ticket choices and accessible entry."
The 90-minute show runs once a night on Monday, Thursday and Friday, and two performances each day on the weekends. In reality, the show could run essentially nonstop if demand warranted, and it has essentially been fully sold out in the 3,000-seat Abba Arena.
The Las Vegas version is expected to be in the former "Enchanted" space at Resorts World Las Vegas, but those negotiations have not been finalized.
Avatars of the original Abba lineup of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad perform in front of a live 30-person backing orchestra.
"Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid have created the kind of concert they always wanted, performing for their fans at their very best: as digital versions of themselves backed by today’s finest musicians," Abba said on the show's website.
"Blurring the lines between the physical and digital, see the magic of Abba brought to life using the latest in motion-capture technology."
Given the reported $150 million price tag for "Abba Voyage," not every artist can afford this type of immortality. But if this show performs in Las Vegas as well as it has in London, it's hard to not see other big names following this model.
