By: Rachel Belson

This year, the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos competed in Super Bowl XLVIII, which aired Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014. The game itself was a blowout. Many say the best part of the entire game was the halftime show, delivered by pop singer, Bruno Mars, accompanied by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Bruno Mars kicked off his career in 2010, when he accompanied B.O.B for the song “Nothin’ on You”, which topped several hit single charts and reached number one in the United Kingdom. He later accompanied Travis McCoy for the song “Billionaire” which appeared on many top charts worldwide, including several Billboard charts, making the song a major success. In 2012, Bruno Mars released his second album “Unorthodox Jukebox” just in time for Christmas. This album release followed his new hit single from the album, “Locked Out of Heaven”. This song was again a huge success, along with a couple of other songs from the sophomore album, “Treasure” and “When I Was Your Man”. His accomplishments do not stop here, however. Mars has been nominated 177 times in just the short amount of time he has climbed to the top, winning 57 of these nominations. Along with his various honors and awards, including an American Music Award for Favorite Pop and Rock Male Artist in 2011, two Grammy’s and many more, Mars can now add a fantastic Super Bowl halftime Performance to list of accomplishments.

Mars previous success transformed into a perfect halftime show performance. Since “Billionaire” was one of the songs that made Bruno Mars famous, it seemed only fitting that he kicked off the show with a choir of children singing his part of the song. The interesting part was, at the end of the children’s performance, they repeated the word “prepare” twice, as if Mars was telling the world to prepare for this mindblowing performance that was about to unfold. Suddenly, Mars appeared behind a drum set, something he has never done before, and delivered a performance which shocked many, but was completely on target. It was said on Twitter that “Bruno Mars’ drumming was more on target than the Broncos’ defense.” Next, the stage moved back to join the rest of a much larger stage, where he joined his ninepiece soul band, creatively called “The Hooligans”, after his first album. They wore matching gold jackets, black pants, and skinny black ties, resembling the look of a 60’s soul band.

Immediately, the band broke into the tune of “Locked Out of Heaven”, followed by “Treasure” and “Runaway Baby”. His voice was on target, his stage presence was perfect, and he must have gained thousands of more fans. He kept the crowd interested with his smooth transitions and savvy dance moves. Who knew he could move like that? The band was completely in sync with him the whole way through. One thing loyal fans may have noticed is that he sped up his songs to a faster tempo, but made them all the same speed to ensure easy transition and to keep the audience on their toes. Another attention grabber was the on target fireworks which launched at the perfect moment during all of his songs. Bruno Mars then announced the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who came out to perform their song “Give It Away”. Bruno Mars sang with lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, for part of the song before moving away to let the band have the full spotlight. At the end of the rock performance, the Hooligans and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were bouncing around all over stage, overwhelmed with excitement. When the song was over, the music for “Just the Way You Are” began playing, as a tearjerking video appeared on screen, showing messages from different military personnel to their families and loved ones back at home. After the final message, Bruno Mars is shown standing on a very small circular stage where he delivers probably his best performance of “Just the Way You Are”. The song was full of emotion, along with big vocals. To finish the song, he ended with some unexpectedly big vocals, which were accompanied by a beautiful finale of fireworks.

The performance received many great reviews. Bruno Mars was one of the trending topics on Facebook where many comments contained words such as, “I’m not really a fan of Bruno Mars, but the performance was one of the best halftime shows I’ve ever seen.” Despite these encouraging words, and others like it, many Red Hot Chili Pepper fans were disappointed with the lack of stage time the band had. However, I would have to disagree. It was made known that Bruno Mars would be the headliner for the halftime show, which only allows a little bit of time for a star to deliver an unforgettable performance. In an interview with CNN, Flea, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, said that the band was honored that the NFL and Bruno Mars asked them to be a part of the halftime show, not to steal the spotlight from Bruno Mars. Their performance was a nice touch on the big picture, but was not meant to be the whole show. Bruno Mars delivered an amazing, unforgettable halftime show that people around the country will be talking about for months to come.