Roaring thunder, bright lightning, torrential rain and the sort of sweltering humidity that brings grown men to tears could not—did not—stop Bruno Mars from his appointed rounds: living as proof positive that he’s 21st-century R&B Lite’s finest, most unique engineer of contagious soul. Which is fascinating to maintain considering Mars’ ubiquity within pop culture—increasingly so, since his debut in 2010—and the manner in which he re-presents the past and makes it amenable for younger ears.
If anyone else but Mars were to rely on vocal elements of doo wop and the harmonies of the Sound Of Philadelphia, linger on the subtly complex chord changes and rhythmic flicker of a Jam & Lewis and a Willie Colón or utilize the flashy male choreography of Motown’s finest, it would look corny. On Bruno Mars, it’s a TikTok-able scene, striking and new—complete tonight at Lincoln Financial Field with moving, shaking and crooning a little faster than usual so to fit his entire show in under the midnight hour’s deadline. Even down to his wearing, then doffing, a velvet cape that read “The RoMANtic” (this 2026’s tour title) with its bolded all-caps middle and its James Brown savoir-faire: totally fresh.
From the manner in which he entranced a sold-out football stadium and made it all feel as if he was holding court in his grandmother’s living room, I would say that Mars’ talent is bringing the ginormous and the glitzy down to the bite-sized. And finding the intimate, close-cropped nuance at any turn he can. That means taking the big vocals of opening number “Risk It All” and allowing each pucker and click within his three-octave voice to rattle, thrum and hum, sweetly, atop a 12-piece band’s complex arrangements. (By the way, opening a post-thunderstorm stadium show with ballad? Huge cujones.) A conga-filled “Cha Cha Cha” might’ve been a large, Latin-laced, cinemascopic percussive workout, but because he’s so earnestly at ease with that dance step’s forward lock and the manner in which to sing out that pulse, Mars made it seem as if he was teaching that stammering dance routine and sound to his baby sister.
Of course, some things were stagey and massive without apology. Owing to his longtime Las Vegas residency, an “angel baby” crowd-perusing take on the KissCam for “the ladies in the audience” accompanied a garrulously harmonic new song, “God Was Showing Off.” If you’re going to sing out a medley of romantic, post-argument make-up songs such as Marvin’s “Let’s Get It On” and the Chi-Lites’ “Oh Girl,” you might as well usher a low-riding, red muscle car onto the stage to sing it from. And though it boiled down to its two frontmen—Mars and fellow vocalist Anderson .Paak—what else could a Silk Sonic reunion set be if not a full-blown sleek, chic, satin disco spectacular with all the bravura each singer could muster.
Though he dotted the first two acts of his The Romantic show with his catalog’s signature moments (“24K Magic” and “Leave The Door Open” were amongst the highlights), Mars’ third-act attack was a relentless barrage of everything he’s done right, and righteously, for a decade and a half: the dramatic, brushed-denim country-fried “Die With A Smile,” an immensely grooving, Hi-NRG take on “Locked Out Of Heaven,” the impossibly passionate “Marry You” and “Just The Way You Are” and an elevated, propelled, rapier-fast outro of “Uptown Funk” lab-designed to kick your ass out of the coliseum in time for the subway home.
Don’t believe that. Just watch.
—A.D. Amorosi
