And that’s exactly what made the NFL offer Mars the Super Bowl halftime slot. Compared with recent halftime headliners the Black Eyed Peas, Madonna and Beyonce, Mars has fewer years in the spotlight. But he matches them in live performance power, as the NFL’s Sarah Moll and Tracy Perlman realized when they saw the Moonshine Jungle tour several times this summer.
“If you go to his concerts, it’s 11-year-old girls to 65-year-old women-it’s everyone,” director of entertainment and TV programming Moll says. VP of entertainment marketing and promotions Perlman adds, “Our fans engage with music regardless of genre or gender, and people like Beyonce have helped us hit on all cylinders. We really feel we’ll be able to do the same with Bruno this year.”
Moll, who books the halftime performers, and the NFL’s entertainment team started working with Mars and his management on the halftime set list around Thanksgiving week. They’ll spend the remainder of 2013 mapping out the production and staging, not to mention the guest list. “He’s got a few calls to make,” Moll says, hinting that Mars’ 12-minute set won’t be an entirely solo affair.
In the meantime, Mars and his band have been “fooling around, having a blast” prepping for the high-profile gig at the outdoor MetLife Stadium during tour sound checks. “But being from Hawaii, me and the cold don’t really speak that often,” he says with a shudder. “And everyone is saying there’s going to be a blizzard. So how do you rehearse for that? Go perform in meat lockers?”