‘Saturday Night Live’ music: Bruno Mars performs ’24K Magic’

When we first heard that Bruno Mars was going to be on “Saturday Night Live” this week, we admit that we wanted to see him come on board as a host. This is a guy who has played this role wonderfully in the past, and we know that he can be incredibly funny in addition to his many musical talents.

While that didn’t happen (Emily Blunt hosted the show instead), we were happy to at least have him as a performer in this episode, especially in terms of getting to see him perform “24K Magic,” his latest potential hit that is still getting some traction out there. The sound feels relatively similar to some past songs like “Treasure,” but we’d say that it is slightly modernized while still keeping a little bit of that soul and funk in there.

We’re no music expert, but our overall review of Bruno’s first performance is pretty much this: If you loved past performances from him, odds are you enjoyed this. It had the same energy to it, and he’s just such a naturally fun guy to watch. You can tell that he’s enjoying it, and that’s an underrated skill these days.

Second song – Given that this was another new song, it’s not one that we know a lot about — but it definitely felt like vintage Bruno, whether it be the lyrics, the style, or the backing bad. He was completely in his element, and gave us a really good time. We suppose that the only real criticism we could offer of this was that, for the most part, it wasn’t all that different from any other song from him we’ve heard over time. If you were looking for a major departure from what we know about him as an artist, maybe this was a slight disappointment.

For more news on “SNL,” including our review for the rest of the show, head over to this link! (Photo: NBC.)