Erika Jayne’s love affair with Las Vegas started with a playbill. When she was just a child, the future reality star’s mother and stepfather took a weekend getaway to Sin City and brought back a program for Lido de Paris, the famous revue boasting topless showgirls that ran for decades at the now-demolished Stardust Resort and Casino, as a souvenir.
“I fell in love with this program,” Erika tells Billboard from her home in Los Angeles. “So much so that when I did my book report, we had to pick a city and I picked Las Vegas.”
Bringing her beloved program filled with topless performers didn’t exactly go over well in her Georgia classroom, but the then-elementary schooler flooded her class with dice and other Vegas-themed paraphernalia instead, only to learn after she gave her report that the glitzy metropolis wasn’t actually the capital of Nevada. (For the record, that’s Carson City.) But the point remained: Erika officially had her sights set on Vegas.
This summer, that longstanding dream of seeing her name in the lights of Sin City will be fully realized as Erika launches Bet It All on Blonde, her very own residency at House of Blues Las Vegas inside the Mandalay Bay.
“It just feels right. It is right. It’s over the top like Erika Jayne,” the blonde bombshell said of bringing her act to the famous Strip starting Aug. 25 for a run of 11 dates over five weekends through Dec. 2. “Fantasy, love, escape, glitz, glamour and fun — that’s what we’re gonna bring to you and I’m so f—ing excited.”
Erika Jayne
Courtesy Photo
Those six individual keywords make up what the singer refers to as the guiding “ethos” of her stage persona, whom many fans first met when she joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast back in 2015. Erika Jayne became an instant fan favorite upon her introduction to the Bravosphere, and in her seven seasons and counting, Bravoholics have watched the dance-club diva perform in gay clubs in San Diego, Chicago and New York City, to far-flung locales like Mykonos. In season 9, she even headlined her very own tour, which included a sold-out show at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles attended by her fellow Housewives.
But even before she was living out her fantasies in front of Bravo’s cameras, Erika had already gained a passionate, mainly LGBTQ+ fanbase and a string of dance-driven chart hits — including nine No. 1s on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart. It’s an undeniable accomplishment she notes hasn’t fully translated in the minds of Housewives fans, even as they’ve watched her record music, hold auditions, cast dancers and film music videos for singles like “How Many F–ks” (her most recent No. 1) and “Xxpensive” on the show.
“They’re all special,” the self-described “musical theater kid” says of her nine chart-toppers, the number of which actually rivals the likes of Christina Aguilera (10), Britney Spears (11), Kylie Minogue (14) and Lady Gaga (15). (Madonna, meanwhile, holds the unparalleled record on the chart, as revisited on Her Madgesty’s excellent 2022 compilation Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones.)
“Like, think about ‘Roller Coaster,’ which was in 2007 or 2008 or whenever it was,” Erika continued. “You know, it was my first record out. And I just remember creating in the beginning with such freedom and making music that I liked to dance to. … As I think here, there are so many [songs] that I wish had a bigger look. But now they will, ’cause they’ll be back in the show.”
As she prepares for her residency, the RHOBH star has no qualms about taking a cue from recent smash engagements like Spears’ Piece of Me, Aguilera’s The Xperience or Gwen Stefani’s Just a Girl to find inspiration for what makes a Vegas show sparkle. “Obviously, it’s going to be Erika Jayne,” she says. “But let’s be honest: Everybody’s looking at Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez. Those women have done a great job. And I’m gonna do a great job too.”
It’s also a safe bet to expect Erika’s preparations for Vegas won’t simply stay in Vegas, either. Expect to watch the process play out on season 13 of RHOBH, which is currently in production, and possibly beyond the Bravo franchise too, into a spin-off of its own. “I remember watching Blonde Ambition and being so fascinated by the inner-workings of a tour,” she says, referencing Madonna: Truth or Dare, the 1991 documentary directed by Alek Keshishian that brought fans behind the scenes of Madonna’s now-iconic, boundary-breaking Blonde Ambition Tour. “I want to give the fans a different look at my artistry, putting a show together, where I am in my life, outside of Housewives.
“Because it has its own life,” she continues. “You know, the show, the residency, everything that goes into it. The personalities around it, the pressure. Making the show is fascinating to a lot of people. It certainly is to me. And I think that that needs to be captured.”
Along with past cuts like “Give Me Everything,” “Stars” and “Painkillr,” the Pretty Mess author promises her residency will also include new music filled with “big, anthemic, fun moments,” which she’s currently hard at work recording in the studio, as well as covers of some of her favorite songs by other artists. “It’s a new era of Erika Jayne,” she teases. “And I think that’s important because the journey continues on as a musician, as an artist. Things have changed, but I will never not be happy onstage. Does that make sense? I will never not celebrate onstage, I will always have a good time and always bring the party. But it’s just a new party.”
What’s changed exactly? Well, first the pandemic ravaged the world, bringing Erika’s thriving performing career to an abrupt and devastating halt just weeks after she’d made her celebrated Broadway debut playing Roxie Hart in Chicago. (“I think that anyone that calls themselves a performer should have to go to Broadway. … Every night I stood onstage, I just was honored to be there.”)
Then, as anyone who’s followed the drama on RHOBH or read the news in the past two years knows, her personal life imploded as she was caught in the legal riptide of her estranged husband Tom Girardi’s very public fall from grace. The onetime powerhouse of the L.A. legal and political worlds, who earned his reputation winning high-profile cases like 1993’s Anderson et. al. v. Pacific Gas & Electric — which inspired the movie Erin Brockovich — stands accused of misappropriating at least $2 million in funds meant for the families of victims of a 2018 airplane crash in Indonesia, funneling more than $20 million in additional victim compensation to the LLC created for Erika’s entertainment career and various other financial crimes. He has since been disbarred, placed in a legal conservatorship, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and lives permanently in a memory care facility.
Erika, meanwhile, has maintained she had no knowledge of Girardi’s misdeeds — a controversial plot point that has fueled much of the can’t-miss drama on the past two seasons of RHOBH. Last fall, she won a decisive victory in a $5 million lawsuit filed against her for allegedly “aiding and abetting” her husband, with the judge finding no evidence of “wrongdoing” on her part, per the L.A. Times.
Determined to come out on the other side of her world being upended, Erika says the title of Bet It All on Blonde symbolizes not only the next chapter of Erika Jayne, but also her hard-fought independence and steadfast commitment to herself.
“Look, I think it’s no secret what I’ve been going through these last couple years,” she says. “And you do, in life, have to bet on yourself. Especially in this business. You have to be willing to take risks, and Vegas is a betting town, so I bet it all on myself. I rolled the dice and I’m cashing in.”
Tickets for Erika Jayne’s Bet It All on Blonde residency go on sale Monday (April 24) at 10 a.m. PT via the House of Blues Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay or Ticketmaster, or by calling (702) 632-7600. A special fan presale will begin Thursday (April 20) at 10 a.m. PT with additional presales for members of MGM Rewards, MGM Resorts’ loyalty rewards program, as well as House of Blues, Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers will start one day later on Friday (April 21) at 10 a.m. PT. All presales will end Sunday (April 23) at 10 p.m. PT before the general on-sale.
