Keith Urban for the save!
When Adele postponed the opening of her residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in January about 24 hours before the show was supposed to open, fans’ plans were ruined and the Las Vegas resort was in a bind. Adele cited COVID as the official reason that her residency couldn’t open even though fans from around the world had spent thousands of dollars to attend the show.
Urban, who launched his Las Vegas residency at the venue in 2020, picked up the slack.
“We got a very panicked call one night, asking if we could fill in a bunch of shows and it worked out perfect,” Urban told PEOPLE. “We were able to do it.”
The “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer was only able to play a small handful of his “Keith Urban Live – Las Vegas” show dates before the pandemic forced the residency – and much of the country – to close. In the fall of 2021, Urban resumed his residency in Las Vegas. So when he got the call to help fill the vacated dates, he was ready to go.
Urban picked up Adele’s March and April dates, which means he’ll now play the space March 25, 26 and 30; April 1-2; and May 27-29.
“I love that room,” he said of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. “The stage is literally an arena, it’s insane.”
Urban further explained the Colosseum to Rolling Stone:
“It’s three venues in one,” he said. “You’ve got an arena stage that truly is, I mean the production you can put on a stage is massive. You’ve got a lot of theater seating and a theater vibe, but then you’ve also got this club happening down on the floor where everybody’s standing. It’s rowdy, it’s a raucous vibe. The three venues that I love playing the most are all in one place.”
In more Urban news, he released the new music video for his song “Wild Hearts” on Wednesday. He dedicated the video to “all of the drifters, all of the dreamers ready to fly.”
“I wanted to create the feeling of the journey I’ve been on from day one – hoping that one day I’d be playing live in front of as many people as can be jammed into a concert hall,” Urban said in a statement.
Urban opened the video with a boom box, similar to how he launched his career.
“It represents the beginning, when I had no band, and I just played to a couple of people,” he explained in the statement. “The building I’m playing on starts rising higher, as the audience grows. All of this leading to a starry sky becoming a sea of camera phones in the air – a phenomenal sight to see from any stage.”
It’s a scene with which Urban will refamiliarize himself soon. In addition to his Las Vegas residency, Urban is going on tour for the first time in nearly four years.
“All of this gives me the same adrenaline rush,” he said in a statement. “Knowing that we’re heading back out on the road again – it’s been so long since we’ve done that (because of COVID). I feel like a caged animal kicking at the gate to be let out!”
Urban’s THE SPEED OF NOW WORLD TOUR will launch April 28 at the O2 Academy Birmingham, which is the first of seven shows in the U.K. before he kicks off June 17 in the U.S. in Tampa, Florida.