First Posted: 2/3/2014
With his Motown style and contemporary sound, it is no surprise that Bruno Mars buoyed a Super Bowl Halftime Show that received the largest TV audience in history.
“Bruno Mars!” exclaimed Sharon Osbourne when I asked her what current artist she enjoys, just a week prior to the big game. “I’d die for him.”
Others might just catch that “Grenade.” Surprisingly, that was one of his hits left off the brief set list. A chorus kicked off the performance with part of Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire,” which Mars sings the hook of and co-wrote. From there, the singer launched into a drum solo with a breakdown that led into “Locked Out of Heaven.” Mars uses a similar arrangement on his Moonshine Jungle Tour.
There was no looking back from there. Fans inside MetLife Stadium were treated to “Treasure,” “Runaway Baby,” and a cameo from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The shirtless California rockers rushed the stage with their iconic “Give It Away.” Mars then took the performance full circle with his first solo single, “Just the Way You Are.”
The show was viewed by 115.3 million people. Over 2.2 million tweets were sent during it, more than was sent during the entire State of the Union and GOP response.
DEMI LOVATO FEELING BETTER AFTER HECTIC 2013
Between scoring another hit single, releasing a revealing book, and leaving “The X-Factor,” Demi Lovato lifted a lot of weight off her shoulders in 2013.
“I worked so hard last year,” Lovato recalled to “The Ralphie Show” during a chat backstage at the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards. “At the end of the year I was, like, a little burnt out.”
But Lovato is turning a new page with 2014; she took most of January off to prepare for the Neon Lights Tour. It’s a far cry from a year in which she would pull all-nighters before national TV performances.
“I had press all day, then I had a concert,” Lovato explained of the first time she did this – coincidentally the last time she appeared on our show. “I was done at 10 p.m. I hopped on a private plane and I tried to sleep on there, but it was only an hour flight. So we got into New York and I couldn’t sleep. So I was up for the entire day.”
Lovato’s work schedule became so overbearing that her team developed creative ways in which she could find time to sleep.
“I used to work so hard that they would prepare a bed in the back of the SUV,” revealed Lovato, “so whenever I got in to the car, there was already a bed prepared because I was not sleeping.”
The singer’s Neon Lights Tour begins Feb. 9 in Vancouver, Canada. Lovato’s supporting acts include Little Mix, Cher Lloyd, and Fifth Harmony. The trek wraps up in Indianapolis on March 30.
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