The 12-time Grammy winner will perform 24 dates between April and October, 2022 at Zappos Theater.
A few weeks ago, John Legend was sitting in the audience of Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood watching fellow The Voice judge Gwen Stefani close out her Las Vegas residency, picturing himself on that very stage.
“We loved the show. I thought it was beautifully put together. The performance was amazing and Gwen was in top form. It was really inspiring to watch her do that and know that we could possibly be on that same stage. And I’m excited that we’ve sealed the deal with Caesars Entertainment,” Legend tells Billboard in an exclusive interview.
The appropriately titled “Love in Las Vegas,” will open April 22, 2022, with 24 dates through October.
The EGOTer promises a “full career show.”
“The setlist will be a cool, career retrospective. A little more about older songs for my fans from back in 2004—they will hear everything they’ve loved over the years,” says the singer and activist. “We’ll play songs from all the albums. My whole catalogue—my whole career summed up in a performance.”
But at 42 years-old, is it too early for Legend to take a nostalgic look back?
“This is the 15-year anniversary of Once Again, my second album. It’s amazing that we’ve had a sustained impact for this long. And it’s also weird when you meet new artists who say, ‘I grew up listening to you,” Legend says with a laugh. “We’re so fortunate to be in a position where we’ve had longevity and people still want to hear what we have to offer. And I’m still making new music. I’m planning to put new music out next year, too. But I want to celebrate my whole career. I’m so grateful to have this many years to mine my repertoire of music.”
For Legend, Las Vegas, much like his music, has always been a celebration of love, from the first show he ever saw on the Strip — Cirque du Soleil’s “O” at Bellagio — to visiting family.
“Some of my in-laws live in Las Vegas and we love spending family time there. But of course, we love to hang out and party and have a good time—we’ve seen some great shows there. We’ve had some great meals there. Vegas has so much to offer. And we want to be a special part of that,” he says. “My music has always been a celebration of love. And that’s what we want to do with this concert. We just had the ‘Bigger Love’ tour. And we want to bring that love to Las Vegas. We’re going to celebrate the music, we’re going to celebrate love, celebrate the connection that people feel when they’re at my shows and how we feel with them.”
Expect to see him channel some of the elements from 2021’s tour, which showcases his pristine vocals and piano playing but it will be Vegas-sized.
“We’ll have some elements from the last tour, but it’s going to be bigger, because the stage is bigger than a lot of the stages we play,” he says. “And since it’s in one place, we can blow it out a little bit more without having to worry about putting it on a truck every night.”
“One of my favorite parts of the “Bigger Love” tour was a stripped down set where it’s just me on the piano for 15 minutes in the middle of the show,” he says. “I love doing that. I love storytelling and having intimate moments. And as much as Vegas has always been about kind of big splashy shows. We know that folks love those intimate moments and we want to give people that.”
Two things he can promise out of the gate, though, are lots of stage time and one song he will definitely be singing.
“I did three outfit changes on my last tour, I’ll probably do three or four at most. I don’t like to leave the stage too much because I feel like I should be out there singing,” he says. “And if I don’t do ‘All of Me,’ I should be fired for malpractice.”
As reported by Billboard in November, Legend recently departed long-time label Columbia to move to Republic Records where he will release new music in 2022.
The residency announcement comes just after the news that Adele will perform her long-rumored Vegas residency “Weekends with Adele” across the street at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, starting in January.
In full rebound from the pandemic, in October Las Vegas posted record numbers with 3 million visitors accounting for more than $1 billion in gaming revenue.
Tickets for John Legend “Love in Las Vegas” go on sale Monday, Dec. 13, 2021.
