Keith Urban Explains His Reasons for a Lengthy Las Vegas Residency

While he does have tour dates scattered throughout his calendar, including several shows overseas, Keith Urban is spending a lot of his time in 2020 in one place: Las Vegas. The 52-year-old launched his Las Vegas residency at the start of the year, joining artists like Shania Twain, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn, among others, who have traded the tour bus for one location, where fans so far are flocking in droves to come see him perform.

“Everybody’s coming to Vegas,” Urban told Rolling Stone. “It’s just, entertainment Mecca. Our audience is quite diverse. We have, obviously, people that love more of the country side of what I do. People that love more of the pop-esque side of what I do. All the stuff that doesn’t really fit into any genre or category, which we’ve got a lot of that kind of stuff.”

Urban’s fans might be more drawn to his Vegas show, thanks to some of his music falling outside of the boundary lines of country music.

“Particularly the last couple of albums, Graffiti U and Ripcord, and Fuse, really those last three had lots of songs on them that don’t fit into the country category,” Urban noted. “They’re just my music. [Las Vegas] really supports that, because you’ve got all kinds of people coming in. People come in to hear ‘The Fighter’ and they want more songs like that. Other people come in for ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color,’ and they want some more songs like that. It’s great to be able to hit all the targets.”

Urban’s audience is eclectic, which is why he makes his setlist eclectic as well, with a little something, hopefully, for everyone.

“At the end of the day, you just try and hopefully put together a good show,” Urban said. “You’re creating an hour-and-a-half-plus party, a night out. I want to do certain things, rise and fall, do this and whatever. I always heard that, at the end of the night, if someone were to say, ‘It was a bummer that he didn’t play, blah, blah,’ I always hope that the follow-up comment is like, ‘That was a really good show. It was really good.’

“They know that you can’t play everything,” he added. “People know that, so you just hope that they come away feeling like they really had a great time.”

Urban admits his year-long Las Vegas residency could be a game-changer for him, instead of just spending an entire year on the road.

“Everybody likes different things,” said the singer. “Some people love the consistency of a venue. I guess you’ve just got to figure out what works for you. Ask me that question at the end of this year, probably.”

Urban’s Las Vegas residency is at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace. Find more information on Urban’s website.

Photo Credit: Getty / Jason Kempin