Why big music stars like Harry Styles and Celine Dion are embracing residencies

NEW YORK (AP) — For Harry Styles' dedicated audience, it is the can’t-miss event of the year: Tens of thousands have descended on New York City’s Madison Square Garden each night of his 30-date residency, rushing to catch the show before it concludes Halloween weekend.

The stint follows the artist's 2022 blockbuster run, when he performed 15 consecutive nights at the famous arena. And he's not the only one embracing the format. Residencies in Las Vegas, once viewed as the final stop at the end of a long career, have attracted younger performers like Usher, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. In 2024, Adele embarked on a 10-date Munich residency. And last year, Bad Bunny's 31-date residency in Puerto Rico single-handedly boosted the island’s fragile economy, generating over $200 million while extending his efforts to elevate the U.S. territory's global profile.

Celine Dion, who holds the record for the highest-grossing residency in Vegas, recently embarked on one just outside Paris. It's her first concert series since revealing her diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome.

Industry insiders and artists alike say there are many reasons why residencies have taken hold in the music business, despite arguments that the format may shift costs to fans who could save money attending a tour in their hometown rather than spending the cash on travel.

Residencies aren't exactly a novel concept, explains Mitch Rose, Creative Artists Agency's head of North American touring, who represents artists including Styles and Perry.

“Go back in time to early Vegas, in the '60s when Frank Sinatra had a residency and Tony Bennett had a residency,” he said. “They played multiple shows across a year at a hotel. That was the birth of a residency.”

Over time, however, Vegas residencies became synonymous with a particular kind of artist: one close to retiring. That changed in the 2000s, when Dion revitalized the format with her yearslong “A New Day …” and “Celine” runs. John Meglen, co‑CEO of Concerts West, was instrumental in both the Vegas residencies and the one in France.

“Most people thought we were crazy,” he said, noting the expense. “It was 200 shows a year, 40 weeks a year. Five shows a week.”

But it worked. Across 16 years and 1,141 performances, Dion grossed $681.3 million, according to Billboard.

Nowadays, residencies are commonplace. Rose says attendees treat them like festivals: destination experiences.

“Think of Coachella,” he says. “People from all around the world come to the desert mid-April to share an experience. And residencies are the same vibe. When we announced Harry’s residency, the Garden was the only place in America that we were playing in 2026. … There's a uniqueness.”

And often, residencies inspire artist pop-up shops and fan meetups, adding to the festival-like atmosphere.

R&B singer Usher hosted his popular “Usher: My Way The Vegas Residency” in 2022 and 2023, part of a high-profile run that included a 2024 Super Bowl halftime show. At the time, he told The Associated Press that part of the appeal was the consistency.

“I like the idea of what I’ve found in Las Vegas. It gives me an opportunity to settle. I have children now. I got a life,” he said.

There are clear financial benefits, too. Residencies save on the major expense of transporting production, people and equipment, Meglen said.

Another upside? “If you do a residency in one city, you’re not on an airplane or in a bus. It's good mental healthcare for the artist,” Rose said.

Residencies also offer an opportunity to develop massive stage productions that don't have to be hauled around the world. Nowhere is that more clear than at the 516-foot-wide (157-meter) Sphere in Las Vegas, with its state-of-the-art technological attractions and high-resolution LED screen that wraps halfway around a 17,500-seat audience.

In 2026, Carín León became the first Latino artist to hold a residency there. “It’s a venue that lets you express a lot of stuff because of all of the tools,” he said. “For me, it was perfect.”

Styles' New York audience spends anywhere from under $100 to $1,000 to attend, not counting the cost of travel for out-of-towners.

“I understand why residencies make sense for an artist and why it would be less stressful and make their lives easier. But as a fan, I don’t understand how they cost as much money as they do,” said Sara Feigin, a Styles fan and New York-based photographer. “You’re playing over 30 days at the same venue, why is this $300?”

She believes that if residencies are more affordable for talent, tickets should be cheaper too.

A representative for Styles declined to comment.

For Ticketmaster events like Styles' residency, the base price for a ticket before various fees and taxes (or the “face value” cost) is determined by the event organizer.

Meglen says it’s crucial that traditional touring continue, but there’s room for both: Residencies give “all these other markets a breather,” as he puts it, in turn creating future demand. “I don’t know any artist that keeps touring over and over and over in the same markets that their ticket sales go up.”

Where a residency takes place depends on the artist. Consider Bad Bunny. “Nobody could do what he did in Puerto Rico, right?” said Rose. “Major markets are always going to be the first choices of residencies. … And I don't think every city works.”

As for Dion, “Paris is Celine’s biggest market in the world,” says Meglen.

Otherwise, entertainment capitals with many large venues like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York top the list. And fans who live far from these locations should expect to travel, because residencies don't appear to be going anywhere.

“Everything is cyclical and the residencies are certainly having a moment,” said Rose. “And as long as there’s a Las Vegas or an act big enough to do multiple nights in arenas, it will never go away.”

FILE - Usher performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

FILE - Bad Bunny performs during the iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles on March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

FILE - Singer Celine Dion performs during the opening concert of her "Celine Dion Paris 2026" residency at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, outside Paris, on Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)

FILE - Harry Styles performs during the Brit Awards 2026 in Manchester, England, on Feb. 28, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)

This combination of images shows performers, from left, Bad Bunny, Celine Dion, and Harry Styles. (AP Photo)

Republican Vivek Ramaswamy on Friday defended his campaign's ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton in the closely watched race for Ohio governor.

Speaking at a campaign stop in northeast Ohio, he said the advertisement, which features Acton's mother calling her “a liar,” had nothing to do with childhood abuse.

“The irony is they’re lying about an ad that is about lying,” Ramaswamy said. “They’re changing the subject because they don’t want to answer for their own failures."

The advertisement features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, criticizing her and insinuating she has mental health issues. Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, the children's stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton.

Acton is Ohio’s former public health director and has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child. She has condemned Ramaswamy for the ad.

“I won’t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I’m complaining about.” she told Spectrum News, a cable news outlet in Ohio.

A message seeking comment was sent Friday to her campaign

The ad has stirred significant reaction, including from President Donald Trump, who said it was like “hitting pay dirt.”

At a campaign rally in Iowa on Thursday, Trump told the crowd Ramaswamy called him to ask for advice.

“You’ve got to ride with it,” Trump recalled telling Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire and former presidential candidate. Trump expressed jealousy that he didn’t have such a strong ad to run during his own campaigns.

Other Republicans have been critical.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine criticized Ramaswamy and said the ad should be taken down.

“It’s wrong to run this ad,” DeWine said Thursday.

According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of his stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton’s biological father reported him to authorities. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978.

Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury that September, but failed to show at a court hearing and remained a fugitive until at least 1981. He has since died.

President Donald Trump listens as gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at a campaign rally at the Covelli Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)