Certain entertainers embody Las Vegas’ glitz: Elvis Presley. Frank Sinatra. And now, Celine Dion.

The Canadian singer has signed a contract to perform five nights a week at Caesars Palace hotel-casino for three years beginning in 2003. It’s unprecedented for a pop superstar to agree to be anchored to one venue for such a length of time.

The deal, which sources say will pay the 33-year-old entertainer an estimated $45 million over the term of the contract, rivals the sum she could earn from a 40-date world tour before expenses. But it allows her, instead, to stay at home to care for her new child, born in January.

Analysts said the Caesars deal could spark interest in other unconventional live-concert deals at a time when record sales are essentially flat and record conglomerates are under fire for squeezing artists’ royalties.

“Going forward, the value in music is probably going to come more from playing in live venues than from selling albums,” said Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “Harkening back to the Grateful Dead, they had a pretty cool model. They said, ‘We don’t have to sell a ton of records. We can tour like crazy, build a fan base and make money a different way.’ I think it’s intriguing.”

But few musicians have the mega-wattage star power needed to draw a large enough audience to turn a profit on such a deal. Concerts West, a concert promotion firm owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, is counting on Dion’s global sales and Las Vegas’ international tourism business to deliver constant sell-outs.