NEW YORK – For Harry Styles’ devoted fans, his New York residency has become the entertainment event to experience. Each night, tens of thousands pack Madison Square Garden for one of the singer’s 30 scheduled performances, eager to see the show before it wraps up over Halloween weekend.
The engagement builds on Styles’ 2022 success at the arena, where he played 15 straight nights. He is also part of a broader shift in live music. Las Vegas residencies, once associated mainly with artists nearing the end of their careers, now attract younger stars such as Usher, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. Adele staged a 10-show residency in Munich in 2024, while Bad Bunny’s 31-date run in Puerto Rico last year generated more than $200 million and provided a major lift to the island’s struggling economy as he worked to raise the U.S. territory’s international profile.
Celine Dion, whose Las Vegas engagement remains the highest-grossing residency on record, has also returned to the format with a new series outside Paris. The concerts mark her first performances since she disclosed that she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome.
Artists and music executives point to several forces behind the residency boom. Critics argue that these performances can shift costs onto fans, who might spend less by seeing an artist on a hometown tour instead of paying for flights, hotels and other travel expenses. Still, the model continues to gain momentum.
Residencies are adapting to a new era
Residencies may feel like a modern trend, but the concept has deep roots, says Mitch Rose, Creative Artists Agency’s head of North American touring. Rose represents performers including Styles and Perry.
He traces the tradition to the early days of Las Vegas entertainment. During the 1960s, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett regularly performed multiple shows throughout the year at hotels, establishing the basic residency model that remains familiar today.
For decades, however, Las Vegas residencies carried the image of a career finale. Dion helped redefine that perception in the 2000s through her long-running “A New Day …” and “Celine” engagements. John Meglen, co-CEO of Concerts West, played a key role in producing both the Las Vegas shows and Dion’s French residency.
The scale of the plan initially seemed almost impossible, Meglen recalled. The production called for 200 shows annually, spread across 40 weeks, with five performances each week.
The results ultimately proved the skeptics wrong. Over 16 years and 1,141 performances, Dion’s residencies brought in $681.3 million, according to Billboard.
Today, the format is firmly established across the music industry. Rose compares the experience for fans to attending a festival—a trip built around a shared destination and a memorable live event.
He likens a residency to Coachella, where audiences travel from around the globe to the California desert for a collective experience. When Styles’ shows were announced, Madison Square Garden was the only U.S. venue where he was scheduled to perform in 2026, Rose said, giving the concerts an added sense of exclusivity.
The atmosphere often extends beyond the concert hall. Pop-up stores, fan gatherings and other events connected to a residency can turn an artist’s run into a full-scale celebration for visitors.
A win for performers and promoters
Usher’s “Usher: My Way The Vegas Residency,” staged in 2022 and 2023, illustrates the growing appeal of the approach. The high-profile engagement was followed by his appearance as the 2024 Super Bowl halftime performer. In an interview with The Associated Press, Usher said Las Vegas offered something especially valuable: stability.
He explained that settling in one place suited his life as a parent. With children and responsibilities outside music, he appreciated having a home base rather than constantly moving from city to city.
The economics are equally compelling. By keeping a production in one location, artists and promoters avoid the enormous costs of repeatedly transporting crews, equipment and elaborate stage setups, Meglen said.
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Rose also points to the personal benefits. Performing in a single city means less time spent on planes and buses—an arrangement he describes as healthier for an artist’s mental well-being.
The format also makes it possible to create ambitious productions that would be impractical to transport around the world. That advantage is especially visible at Las Vegas’ 516-foot-wide (157-meter) Sphere, where advanced technology and a massive, high-resolution LED display curve around roughly half of the 17,500-seat audience.
In 2026, Carín León became the first Latino artist to headline a residency at Sphere. The venue’s extensive technological capabilities, he said, gave him the creative freedom to express ideas in ways that made it an ideal fit.
Some say residencies shift expenses to the fans
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.”
Residencies can be found all over the globe
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.”
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