Bruno Mars brings the Moonshine Jungle to Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Bruno Mars will take Filipinos on a romp through a time-warping musical jungle where fedora hats, disco balls, Motown, funk, soul and hip-hop all come together. Bruno Mars’ Moonshine Jungle Tour is set to hit the stage on March 22, 2014 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena. Tickets to the concert make the ideal holiday gift before they sell out. Tickets go on sale today. Bruno Mars’ Moonshine Jungle Tour will be mounted by the Music Management International.

Seeing and hearing Mars, whose mom is Filipina, onstage makes one acutely aware of his resemblance to Michael Jackson. Their music has cross-genre appeal. His voice has the “purity, cream and range of mid-period Michael Jackson,” according to the New York Daily News. Mars is an expert in writing modern songs and paying homage to the past and does not shy away from the comparison. In fact, he said, “I feel like he (Jackson) set the bar for artists. Any artist, I don’t care what genre you do, you should always aspire to be like Michael Jackson.”

Mars is responsible for hits such as Just The Way You Are, When I Was Your Man, Grenade, Locked Out of Heaven and many more. Locked Out of Heaven won Best Song at 2013’s MTV Europe Music Awards, won Best Male Video at 2013’s MTV Video Music Awards while Treasure won an MTV VMA for Best Choreography. A teen favorite, he won two Teen Choice Awards this year as a Choice Male Star and Choice R&B Artist.

He is the complete package — singing, dancing and playing instruments with his fedora hat-tipping Hooligans (the name of Mars’ band members). It’s easy to see that Jackson’s baton has been passed on to Mars, who clearly has the swagger of a newly-crowned king. Mars is also the chosen performer to headline 2014’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, which is the most-watched music event of the world drawing more than 110.5 million viewers. The Billionaire singer joins the roster of legends who have graced the halftime stage like Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Beyoncé.

Moonshine Jungle marks Mars’ big leap to arena shows, made possible by the success of his previous tour. The tour kicked off in Washington, D.C. and is “one of those rare, thrilling, upside-down pop concerts where instead of rigidly trying to recreate the high sheen of various hit singles, the singer takes complete control of the songbook, reshaping it at will. Which is to say, it was fantastic,” according to the Washington Post.

The tour is to support the singer’s current album titled Unorthodox Jukebox, which is produced by some big names in music like Mark Ronson, Paul Epworth, Diplo, to name a few. Mars describes the production process as such “we took some master chefs into the kitchen with no master plan... It was either going to be a disaster, or we were going to come out with something incredible.” Unorthodox Jukebox definitely raises the bar and certainly cements Bruno Mars’ status as the new king.

Experience Mars’ pop reign with Moonshine Jungle on March 22, 2014 at the MOA Arena by Music Management International. Tickets are now on sale. For details, call 470-2222 or visit www.smtickets.com.