VEGAS MUSIC NEWS: Clarkson Fans Get Less Than Special Treatment at Caesars Palace, Heart Restarts, NKOTBSB Crossover

  • Kelly Clarkson’s Vegas residency gets off to a rocky start
  • Heart pumps up Vegas with fall Fontainebleu shows
  • NKOTB + BSB = ’90s nostalgia at Park MGM 

Kelly Clarkson fans were heartbroken enough to learn that their American idol postponed the first two dates of her “Studio Sessions” residency at Caesars Palace due to vocal strain — only 90 minutes before the first was set to begin! Now comes word that their Fourth of July in Las Vegas was even worse.

Kelly Clarkson rose to fame after winning the first season of “American Idol” in 2002, (Image: Live Nation)

According to the “Hey Las Vegas” newsletter, published weekday mornings by the “City Cast Las Vegas” podcast, Caesars charged ticketholders the full flat-fee “special event” parking fee of $25 while leaving the garage — “even those who left just minutes after learning the news.”

Heart Resumes Tour

Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. (Image: Heart)

Heart is bringing its “Royal Flush” tour back to Vegas with three fall dates at Fontainebleau’s BleauLive Theater.

The dates — November 12, 14, and 15, supported by Cheap Trick — go on sale at 10 am local time on Friday, July 11 via Ticketmaster.

The Fontainebleau is where sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were scheduled to play last December 15 — until Ann had to undergo emergency cancer surgery. The rebooked date was performed on February 28.

Backstreet Boys on the Block

During the fifth night of New Kids on the Block’s ongoing “Right Stuff” residency at Park MGM on June 28, the reunited boy band welcomed members of their former ’90s chart rivals, the Backstreet Boys, to the Dolby Live stage for a preplanned comedy routine.

The crossover occurred during NKOTB’s “vows” segment, during which when singer Donnie Wahlberg asks his mostly middle-aged female audience, “How many of you thought that one day you might marry a New Kid?”

The camera zoomed in on Backstreet member Howie Dorough, seated in the audience holding a homemade “I Do” sign, to which Wahlberg responded, “You were always my favorite Backstreet Boy.”

Dorough and his boy-bandmate, AJ McLean, then joined NKOTB on stage to discuss possibly co-headlining a tour together again, in what would be their first road collaboration since 2012.

“How about, we finish Vegas, you smash the Sphere, and we team up and do it one more time?” Wahlberg said as the crowd screamed its approval.

Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas.

Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city’s history. (For “Fear and Loafing,” he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.)

Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post.

Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook.

Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.

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