Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Dion’s public appearances hint at return
HOW do visits to the Grammys, NHL games and a fine art museum correlate with a Las Vegas comeback? Celine Dion is showing how.
With each public appearance, Dion is subtly hinting at a potential return to live performances. Her recent visits to the Boston Bruins-new York Rangers game and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on March 21 have sparked anticipation among her fans.
While Dion didn’t make a grand announcement, her choice of public venues for these visits is intriguing. The Gardner Museum, a top tourist attraction in Boston, and her appearance in New York City on March 9 are signs that something significant might be on the horizon.
The key moment in this activity (at least in my opinion) is Dion’s appearance at the Grammy Awards show. With a viewing audience of 17 million people and Crypto. com populated with entertainment-industry figures, Dion gracefully delivered the Grammy for Album of The Year to Taylor Swift (Swift failing to acknowledge Celine is entirely beside the point).
That appearance especially showed Dion’s confidence in front of a mass audience.
Those appearances and observing the tea leaves at Resorts World led me to believe Dion could return to the stage this year. The theater schedule is open from November to December after Carrie Underwood closes the last week of October. That scheduling framework shows the possibility Dion — health permitting, of course — could play New Year’s Eve.
There is no formal confirmation about all of this. Dion’s reps and officials with AEG Presents have not provided independent updates about the superstar’s status. But read the signs. They show Celine Dion in Las Vegas before we flip the calendar.
Hawkeye Time
Westgate Las Vegas GM and President Cami Christensen attended Iowa’s thrilling 71-69 NCAA women’s hoops semifinal victory over Uconn in Cleveland on Friday (and that was an illegal screen by the Huskies at the end, folks). Christensen continues to support her friend since childhood, Iowa associate head coach Jan Jensen. She will return to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse for Sunday’s Iowa-south Carolina final.
On Friday, Christensen sat in front of Jason Sudeikis, who has become an Iowa fan this season, reportedly because of how Caitlin Clark has expanded the game’s popularity. So Christensen got a lot of TV time. If you’ve been in Vegas for over a minute, you remember Sudeikis as a cast member in the “The Second City Las Vegas” cast at the Flamingo in 2003 before he was scooped up by “SNL.”
Christensen says she has met Clark, describing her as “Light and fun and a total gamer.” As the resort president is backing her home state’s team, Westgate Superbook will be decked out in Hawkeyes’ black and yellow (actually, those are the Superbook’s colors, always).
Christensen says her team is the underdog against the top-ranked, unbeaten Gamecocks. “I look at South Carolina, and they are just so big. We need to play our best game of the season and play like there’s nothing to lose.”
Spinout!
Billy and Emily England, late of “OPM” at the Cosmopolitan, continue their high-speed orbit — the brother-sister skating act performed at halftime of Friday’s Iowa-uconn game. An NCAA official caught the pair on “America’s Got Talent,” was wowed and booked the act.
Great Moments in Social Media
Lady Gaga’s band leader and The Pinky Ring at Bellagio music director Brian Newman shows a custom-made, pink-andwhite suit inspired by Robert Deniro’s Ace Rothstein in “Casino.”
Very mob-mod, strawberry-popsicle vibe.
Newman has posted a video of himself and Deniro walking through glass doors in the suit, asking, “Who wore it better?” The trumpet player, in a photo finish.
What Works in Vegas
Foreigner, for all time, at The Venetian Theatre.
The band’s final Vegas performance in its current series was to be Saturday (the April 6 Saturday). They will have sold out all eight shows, roaring through “Juke Box Hero,” “Cold As Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Urgent,” “Head Games,” “Say You Will,” “Dirty White Boy,” “Long, Long Way From Home” and the band’s best-selling hit of all, “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
Friday, that last song was boosted by the Desert Oasis High School Choir. Foreigner returns for its final shows ever (at least according to the current plan) Oct. 26-Nov. 9.
Vocalist Kelly Hanson and the current band still blow the roof off the place. As I noted on social media, Hanson is to Foreigner what Arnel Pineda isto Journey and Adam Lambert has been to Queen. He has extended the band’s legendary career. We hope they are Rock & Roll Hall of Famers when they close at the end of the year. They’ve got our vote.
Cool Hang Alert
Fletch Walcott of David Perrico and the Raiders House band is bringing the Black Eyed Tease tribute to the Black Eyed Peas to Sunset Station’s Club Madrid this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:30). We caught this crew at Monday’s Dark at The Space a few months ago; terrific presentation. No cover, 21-over.