By Debbie Hall
After decades of making music in Las Vegas, Marianne Phoenix is stepping back into the spotlight with Singin’ From My Soul, an intimate evening built around the songs, memories and experiences that have shaped her life.
For Phoenix, being back onstage feels like coming home.
“Feels like I’m alive again!” she says. “Once a performer, always a performer!”
The production features 15 songs Phoenix selected over a year. Rather than simply assembling a collection of favorites, she chose songs that reflect her experiences with love, life, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.
“It took me a year to decide which ones will be the very best to deliver my message of what life means to me,” she says.
Phoenix is producing the show herself, giving her the freedom to shape the evening and tell her story in her own way.
A Lifetime in Music
Phoenix has been performing since 1971, and her musical tastes were deeply shaped by the lush love songs and sophisticated sounds of the 1970s.
“My heart lies in the lush love songs of days gone by,” she says.
Her love of music started early. Her parents loved music and dancing, and her mother sang during the World War II era.
“I was exposed to gorgeous music through my parents who loved music, loved dancing,” Phoenix says. “My mother was a fine singer back in the World War II days.”
Those songs have taken on new meaning as Phoenix has moved through different chapters of her life.
“With so much experience of life these days and the depths of love in my life, there are many songs that I sang forever in a day and was very inspired by them,” she says.
“I could’ve never imagined love growing so much deeper and more meaningful,” she adds. “And now the songs are truly vital messages that I want to be remembered by.”
For Phoenix, singing has always been more than entertainment. It is a way of communicating.
“Singin’ from my soul… singing is my second language and I have so much to say from everything that I’ve learned and loved in my life,” she explains.
Las Vegas Is Home
Las Vegas isn’t simply the city where Phoenix performs. It is where much of her personal story has unfolded.
“Las Vegas is home,” Phoenix says. “I met the love of my life here. My grandchildren were born here, my friends and fellow performers from my era, most are still around, and they mean the absolute world to me!”
She shares that love of Las Vegas with her husband, Whitney Phoenix, who is celebrating 28 years as a pianist at Bellagio.
Whitney is also the musical director and arranger for Singin’ From My Soul, bringing the couple together professionally and personally.
“It has been my complete honor and remains to be the wife of the Las Vegas Piano man!” Phoenix says. “He plays those 88 keys straight from his heart and out his fingers! Bellagio is home for us.”
She calls Whitney an “extraordinary, loving, and talented man,” and his musical direction is key to bringing the production together.
For the Phoenixes, the timing is especially meaningful. As Marianne presents Singin’ From My Soul, Whitney celebrates his 28th year performing at Bellagio beneath the resort’s famous Chihuly glass ceiling.
A Story Audiences Can Share
After so many years performing, Phoenix says she isn’t rediscovering who she is—she has always known.
Asked whether returning to the stage reminded her of anything she had forgotten about herself, her answer is simple.
“My honest answer is no,” she says. “I have always known who I am, and it sure is good to be back!”
What has changed is the perspective she brings to the songs.
Phoenix sees Singin’ From My Soul as a deeply personal story, but she believes audiences may recognize their own lives within it.
“I am absolutely grateful for the opportunity to shine again,” Phoenix says. “This show is my legacy.”
“Seriously, it’s my story,” she adds. “And I am certain that it is also the story of every member in my audience.”
That shared connection is at the heart of the evening: familiar songs, personal memories and the emotions that can bring strangers together in a room.
“It’s going to be a show like no other,” Phoenix says.
For an artist who has spent more than five decades performing, Singin’ From My Soul offers Phoenix a chance to celebrate the music that has stayed with her—and the Las Vegas community that has been part of her story.
