Keith Urban Talks Las Vegas, New Music, And Reveals His Holiday Plans

Keith Urban has revealed that he will be embarking on a new headlining Las Vegas residency. Next year, he’ll take the…

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Madeleine O’Connell

| Posted on

November 17, 2022

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2:53 pm

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Keith Urban; Photo by; ABC/Ed Rode

Keith Urban has revealed that he will be embarking on a new headlining Las Vegas residency. Next year, he’ll take the stage at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino for a run of 16 dates. 

Over the past three years, Urban has had a successful run of shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The “One Too Many” singer promises that Keith Urban: The Las Vegas Residency will be a brand-new show that is custom designed for the new space at Zappos Theater.   

“The Caesar’s Palace Organization said, ‘planet Hollywood, there’s a room over there that you guys may love even more,’ and it’s a slightly bigger room, different kind of energy,” Urban told Country Now and other outlets. “I haven’t played in there yet, but I’ve been in that room and its amazing energy. So, I’m really looking forward to being able to build something from the ground up to go in there.”

When it comes to performing in Vegas, things tend to look and feel a bit different compared to a regular tour that is constantly on the move. Although it stays in one place, the unpredictability of the crowd is one thing that Urban thrives on. 

“I love it. I love the energy, I love the audience,” he shared. “The audience is always different. Night after night, even a Friday night, it’s gonna be different. The next Friday night is different from the one before. It’s always unexpected.”

Keith Urban – Live

He added, “I grew up playing tiny little pubs and clubs and you’ve gotta be in the moment because that audience is gonna let you know really quick if you suck and if they don’t like what you’re doing, and you’re gonna have to either make really fast changes or just be eaten alive. From that experience, I think I learned to be in the moment with the audience, which is what I want to be anyway.”

The global music superstar will kick things off in Las Vegas on Friday, March 3, 2023, following his headlining THE SPEED OF NOW WORLD TOUR 2022, which launched in April of this year with a series of sold-out club shows in the U.K.

Urban then brought what is dubbed as one of his biggest tours yet, back to the U.S. for more than 50 shows. And it doesn’t end there because this December, he will wrap up this venture in the country that raised him, Australia.

“Obviously, I grew up in Australia, but I’ve now been in Nashville 30 years. So I’ve lived here longer than I lived in Australia, but there’s still a feeling of when I play some of those shows that there’s people I went to school with coming out to see us play, which is surreal and it feels good. It always feels good to be sort of back in the place where I grew up,” he explained.

The timing of this set of shows also works out in the way that Urban and his wife, Nicole Kidman will get to reunite with family for the holiday season. 

“My mom will come down and my brother probably from the state north of where we wrap the tour and then they’ll come down for Christmas and Nic’s mom and her sister and all her extended family. So it’ll be very much a family Christmas.”

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman
Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman

In addition to his upcoming Las Vegas residency, the four-time GRAMMY winner has also been working on his next album. Fans have already gotten a taste of what the new music will sound like with songs like “Wild Hearts,” “Brown Eyes Baby” and his most recent release, “Street Called Main.”

“When I started writing and looking for new songs for this next record, I was thinking about the kind of songs that drew me to Nashville in the first place,” Urban explained. “What songs are happening in my life that I loved and really wanted to come to Nashville because of this kind of music, these kinds of songs? It wasn’t about writing songs or finding songs that sounded like they came out 20 years ago, it wasn’t about that. It was about a timeless spirit in the songs that I was looking for for this record.

“One by one, all these songs started to speak to me, even the ones I didn’t write, like ‘Street Called Main,’ like ‘Brown Eyes Baby,’” he continued. “They just had that feeling where I went, ‘Yeah, that’s the kind of song that brought me to Nashville. That’s the kind of song that brought me to Nashville.’ it was kind of almost this beautiful big, full circle moment of rediscovery of certain kinds of songs that I’ve always loved and have missed in my life.”

This full-length project will follow his The Speed of Now Part 1, which marked his fourth in an historic streak of simultaneous #1 album debuts in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Tickets for Urban’s Vegas shows opened up to the public on Saturday, Nov. 12 and he will officially launch the brand-new show on March 3, 2023.

Within those 16 performances in March, June and July, those in attendance can expect to hear a set list full of fan-favorites including “God Whispered Your Name,” “We Were,” and “One Too Many,” as well as many of his #1 hits including “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” “Wasted Time,” “Somebody Like You,” “Long Hot Summer” and “Days Go By.”

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Madeleine O’Connell graduated from North Central College with a bachelors degree in Journalism and Broadcast Communications before deciding to pursue her studies further at DePaul University. There, she earned her masters degree in Digital Communication & Media Arts. O’Connell served as a freelance writer for over two years while also interning with the Academy of Country Music, SiriusXM and Circle Media and assisting with Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast. In addition to Country Now, she has been published in American Songwriter, Music Mayhem, and Holler.Country. Madeleine O’Connell is a member of the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.