Singer Toni Braxton poses for photographers during a press conference Friday at the Flamingo. Braxton will star in a show called "Toni Braxton: Revealed" at the hotel. The show is set to begin Aug. 3. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Toni Braxton says two women who have been there before her, Celine Dion and Gladys Knight, encouraged her to pursue a long-term residency on the Strip.

"I talked to (Dion) backstage a couple of years ago and she told me, 'Toni, it's the best gig,'" the singer said Friday after a news conference to promote a Flamingo engagement starting Aug. 3. Last November, when it became a realistic possibility, she phoned Knight, whom she calls "Mommy."

Knight praised the showroom's acoustics and concurred, "It would be great for the kids," Braxton's 3- and 4-year-old sons.

"Toni Braxton: Revealed" will be a fully produced show with dancers and costumed changes. "When you're in Vegas, you have to do it Vegas," she told reporters. She will rent a home in Las Vegas and perform in six-week bursts for the initial commitment of 40 to 42 weeks.

"We're just going slow. Baby steps."

Braxton, 38, said she was "ready to go back to work" but had "a kind of challenging" experience with last year's "Libra" album, which was delayed and then softly promoted by its record label.

"Recording is great because it got me here," she said, "but it's my least favorite part." Doing the stage show is more in line with her Broadway roles in "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aida" in 1998 and 2003. Braxton decided that before she undertakes other album, "Let me settle with my family here for a second and enjoy my work."

The exception is an overseas trip to Germany next month for the opening ceremonies of the World Cup. Braxton recorded an anthem for the games called "The Time Of Our Lives" with the light-classical quartet Il Divo, which previously remade her signature song, "Unbreak My Heart."

Braxton said Broadway's tough work ethic made her unafraid of daily performing and that "The dry heat is perfect for me because I'm asthmatic. I'm the opposite of Celine."

"I've never performed here long term so give me a couple of months," she added. "I can breathe, it's not as tight on my chest. I don't know how it's going to be on my voice."

The Flamingo won't remodel its vintage showroom for Braxton's show. But Tom Jenkin, president of Harrah's Western Division, called the new show "the first leg of a major transformation" for the property in the next two years that will include new restaurants and nightspots.

Don Marrandino, the Flamingo's president, said he had a well-timed phone call from Braxton's agent just at the time Knight had opted not to extend her three-year run at the Flamingo.

"That was one of those names, you didn't even have to go see her, you just knew," Jenkin said.