Vegas Popular

It's been a 3-year-project for pop-royalty's Prince to open his own Vegas showroom and, thanks partly to super-saleswoman Celine Dion, that dream finally came true last night. Wearing an orange suit, he played 4 songs -- including Purple Rain -- to a select group of VIP's including Harrah's executives who signed him to the Club Rio showroom contract. Click the button to see His Royal Badness throwing down.

Prince's gig starts Friday and he'll be playing two shows each weekend at 10PM. Every Wednesday he'll present guest stars and every Thursday it's his Latin Libido strut salsa cha-cha night. Next week's mid-week star is Chaka Khan and the following week it's Morris Day and The Time.

There's no question Prince is a musical genius and a mind blowingly brilliant guitarist. The purple one told us last night: "I Love Las Vegas. I wanted to recapture vintage Vegas when it was THE late night place for musicians and singers to hang out and jam. This is all live. There will be no recorded tracks on this stage."

In addition to his conversion of the former Schintas/eROCKtica showroom into the 3121 Club, Prince has also taken over the Rio resort's former Fiore Italian restaurantand installed his personal chef, Lena Morgan, formerly of Wolfgang Puck's Spago Hollywood restaurant, as the executive in charge. It too will be known as 3121.

Next week Luxe Life will have an interview with Lena about Prince's menu choices and Concerts West President John Meglin of Anschultz Entertainment Group, who packaged the Prince deal with Harrah's, the giant gaming company that owns the Rio, one block from the Strip, opposite the Palms. I asked Meglin why Prince selected the Rio and he told me, "The Rio's front lighting and logo are purple. It's as simple as that. When he went into the showroom, which also has purple, he simply said 'the vibe is right,' and that was that." More on my chat with Meglin next week here in Luxe Life and his story of how he flew Prince into Vegas to meet backstage at Caesars with his other Strip headliner, Celine Dion to clinch the deal!