Keith Urban had previously said no to doing a Las Vegas residency.
The 55-year-old musician was against the idea of repeating the same show over-and-over-again at the same venue, but his 2019 stint at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Sin City quickly changed his mind.
Speaking to PEOPLE, he said: “I was asked to do it earlier but always said no because to me a residency sounded a little bit like an episode of ‘Severance’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know that I’m built for this.’
“I need freneticism and unpredictability, and I need a certain energy. When we finally went and did the residency at the end of 2019, I loved it and I was transformed.”
The ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’ hitmaker is gearing up for another residency at the Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood, which will see him play 16 nights between March 3, 2023, and July 1.
And fans may hear some new music at the ‘Keith Urban: The Las Vegas Residency Show’.
Keith – who is married to Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman – hinted: “I’ve probably got maybe half a dozen or more songs that have all been finished mixed, done, ready to go.”
Keith – whose last studio album was 2020’s ‘The Speed of Now Part 1.’ – admits there is more than one way to “define a hit” these days, with the rise of social media platforms such as TikTok, which can make it hard to decide the best way to release music.
He explained: “It’s tricky because there’s no centre anymore. There was a time when you would say, ‘Well OK, here’s the trajectory: We’re gonna take this song to radio; we’re gonna shoot a music video; we’re gonna put that on ‘CMT’ — there was a sequence to everything.
“But there’s so many portals and platforms and ways to get new music out, from TikTok and all the social media platforms to obviously filming a video or maybe just doing a lyric video. Maybe you do a little snippet or a live version and then something that’s officially a single for radio, and then another one that you’re not really going to take to radio.”
He added: “There’s just infinite ways. And when someone says, ‘Well, was that song a hit?’ You go, ‘There’s like 20 different ways to define what a hit is these days.'”