Jason Derulo hopes to gain “legendary status” with his Las Vegas residency.
The “Talk Dirty” hitmaker will play 10 dates at The Venetian Hotel in Sin City starting May 17. He’s promised the shows will be “theatrical and very personal,” with a team of dancers and “the best band” behind him.
“In America, this is where you get legendary status. It is the most beautiful venue. I shot the ‘Spicy Margarita’ video there,” he told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column.
“I’m so looking forward to it. I’m a musical theatre kid, so it’ll be theatrical and very personal. I have the best band and the best dancers on the planet. They’ll be there with me,” Derulo added.
The singer has turned his fortunes around in recent years after leaving his record label, Warner, in early 2020. He said he felt overlooked at the company, but it wasn’t plain sailing as the offers he expected to come flooding in initially failed to materialize.
“It was a tough situation,” Derulo recalled.
“Every year there was brand new staff, and they go about finding new artists. I’m there going, ‘Hi, it’s me.’ Like, I’m keeping the lights on here. I got out of that deal, and I thought I’d have my pick of what label they wanted me to go to,” he said.
“But all I could hear were crickets. I couldn’t believe it. I sold 250 million records. I was like, ‘What is going on right now?’ Then yeah, everything happens for a reason,” Derulo added.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, his song “Savage Love“ went viral and hit number one when he released it as an independent artist. This prompted record labels to reach out, and he signed with Atlantic Records the following year.
He released his album, Nu King, last month. He explained the epic 27-song track listing is an indicator of his strong work ethic.
“The 27 songs is a big cut from what it was before, but Nu King has songs like “Swalla” and “Take You Dancing,” which didn’t have a home,” Derulo said.
“I was born with a crazy work ethic. Like, when I was trying to play basketball and I didn’t make my team. I put all the work into that and never left home without a basketball. I went on to become one of their star players, and we were the 14th team in the country. It’s all about the work ethic,” he said.
