2023-12-17 06:00:13
The new undisputed star of the self-proclaimed “entertainment capital of the world” is called Sphere. A luminous globe placed near the Strip, the boulevard that crosses Las Vegas for 7 kilometers. And a magnet for selfies and Instagrammers with its metamorphoses transforming it into a planet, a balloon, an eye or a Halloween pumpkin. In Vegas, the superlative is required: 112 meters high and up to 157 meters wide, Sphere is therefore the most imposing spherical structure in the world and also has the largest LED screen, powered mainly, we swear, by solar energy, in order to offer no less than “the performance hall of the next generation”.
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With a cost of 2.3 billion dollars (around 2.1 billion euros), it is first of all the most expensive in the history of Las Vegas. Suffice it to say that the profusion of resources justified the arrival of exceptional guests for the opening, on September 29, delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Who else but U2 to take on such a challenge? The Irish rock group is scheduled there exclusively until the beginning of March 2024. Forty dates in total. A duration which modifies the conventions of a tradition specific to Las Vegas: artist residencies – musicians but also actors, magicians, illusionists, circus performers – in hotel-casinos.
Kylie Minogue performs in the room called “Voltaire Belle de Nuit”, at The Venetian hotel, in Las Vegas (Nevada), in November 2023. ERIK MELVIN
The idea of setting up temporarily in Las Vegas rather put off Willie Williams, the British artistic director of U2:UV attention babythe U2 show. “I hate this cityhe confides, she is sinister, cynical, and everything has become very expensive. But Sphere was the perfect place for a reinvention of the band. » And the image of Las Vegas has changed radically over the past two decades, for musicians and the public alike: “In the past, people went there to die at the end of their career. Today, it is the trendiest place there is. It has become a sort of festival where we meet people who have come to see other artists. » Currently or soon in residence are veterans of the hotel-casino circuit (Barry Manilow, Wayne Newton and Donny Osmond), neo-country stars (Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Shania Twain), glamorous divas (Adele, Kylie Minogue , Kelly Clarkson) or rock institutions (Santana, Scorpions). R’n’B mixed with pop is also there since Usher gave, on December 2, his hundredth and last concert at Dolby Live, the amphitheater of the Park MGM hotel complex, which awaits the return of Bruno Mars and from the group Maroon 5.
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