Something magical
WHILE the world was busy dancing to Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk at the top of 2015, the singer was partying in the studio and creating his latest groovy hit.
The Grammy-winning star said in an interview with The Associated Press he wrote 24K Magic around the time Uptown Funk topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart last year. 24K Magic debuted at No. 5 on the Hot 100 chart last week.
The new party anthem was launched with a music video to match its celebratory flavour. So far, it’s racked up more than 46 million views on YouTube.
“You want to kick the door down instead of politely say, ‘Hey guys, check this out.’
“So I think that was the whole objective – to make sure the visual came with the song so people can know, ‘When we wrote this, this is what we felt like,”’ Mars said. “When I’m performing, this is what I want you to feel like. Hopefully everyone’s partying with us.”
The tune comes after the massive success of Uptown Funk with Mark Ronson, which recently hit RIAA diamond status and won two Grammy Awards this year, including record of the year.
24K Magic is the first single – or invitation to the party as Mars puts it – for his third album of the same name, to be released Nov 18. Two days later, he’ll open the 2016 American Music Awards with a live performance.
The singer-songwriter-producer says when he first came up with the treatment for the video, which features his signature dance moves, playful band and colourful fashion, he overthought it.
“For weeks and weeks and weeks, I wanna say a year, I was thinking about what the video’s going to be ... how are we going to distance it from the other videos I’ve done and do something special.
“And every time I came up with a concept it wasn’t what the song (was about). The song sounds like a party. So it was like, `Don’t try to go against the grain,”’ said Mars, who co-directed the clip.
When the pop star was in Las Vegas, a light bulb turned on.
“I was like, `This is what we got to do. Fly the guys down. Turn the camera on’.”