Bruno Mars has swagger for days—everybody knows that. But it’s the funk and soul of the great performers before him that have made him the pop protégé he is today. That’s why resident Tao and Foundation Room DJ Kay the Riot can’t get enough of Mars’ latest, “24K Magic.”
“I fell in love with the track because of its funk influence. It immediately makes you want to dance,” she says. “Being an open-format DJ, it works perfect to bridge the gap between old-school and current music. It allows me to play tracks that I really love but might not necessarily be able to make work on the regular. I can drop a James Brown track or Zapp & Roger track and get away with it. The younger generation might not even know who those artists are, but it’s educating them to the originators who gave birth to that style.”
It only makes sense that Mars, a 17-time Grammy nominee, would land the first residency at MGM’s new Park Theater, where he’ll pump some of that classic soul back into Las Vegas.