That was my, and, let’s be honest, a lot of people’s reaction when the baby-faced singer received the Super nod. The general perception was that he lacked the chops to sizzle on such a pressure-packed stage. After all, how many hits did he really have? This was the Super Bowl, not a one-song performance at the Teen Choice Awards.
As the Big Game and Mars’ performance approached, people started to wonder if he was the right choice. News came out that The Red Hot Chili Peppers would also appear, and water cooler talk — for whatever it’s worth — surmised that perhaps the league or Mars was worried that he couldn’t handle it himself.
For whatever it’s worth, that was about the time I started to think that maybe the people who picked Mars in the first place knew something the rest of us didn’t. And man, did they!
Bruno Mars, in the parlance of our times, killed it. Many of us were familiar with his music, but not his shows. We knew he could sing and charm the camera, but did we know he could play the drums? There he was, greeted by a chorus of children canting “Billionaire,” a silhouette behind cymbals.
Yet it wasn’t Mars alone — it was Mars and his band, The Hooligans, putting on a show that was arguably as good and multi-faceted as the Seahawks’ masterpiece. One of my friends remarked that they resembled The Jackson Five, with Bruno channeling Michael at center stage — and that was before he broke out a backwards, moonwalk-esque move of his own.
Millions of viewers across the globe realized it at once: Bruno Mars’ talent is for real.
And then … The Chili Peppers barged onstage. I’m a big-time RHCP fan — own almost all of their albums, have seen them rock the house live — but every second of “Give It Away” that they played was a second of precious airtime that should’ve gone to Mr. Mars. It was as if the people who booked the show second-guessed their decision and brought in the Peppers to appeal to a larger audience. That’s speculation, but if anything close to that happened, the Powers That Be should have stuck to their collective gut. The Chili Peppers’ sound and vibe clashed with what Mars had going, and the fans would’ve been much better served without the interruption.
Luckily, “Give It Away” went away, and we got a few more minutes of Mars, alone in a beam of light, which was exactly how it should have been. He finished his final number and thanked the fans, who gave him an applause that exhibited true — and much, much deserved — appreciation.
They picked Bruno Mars for halftime at the Super Bowl. But he didn’t just play the show — he stole it.
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