The Verizon Theatre welcomes this week two artists who've managed to be widely underappreciated, despite residing squarely in the pop spotlight.
Bruno Mars, the baby-faced doo-wop reinterpreter, gets fangirls for his sugary ballad "Just the Way You Are," but he goes largely unheralded for cowriting B.O.B.'s "Nothin' on You" and Cee-Lo's mammoth "Fuck You."
Joining him on this tour, dubbed Hooligans in Wondaland, fellow rising star Janelle Monae will further prove the point that she should just be the biggest R&B/pop star in the world. If nothing else, she'll look the part, clad in her dapper suit-and-pompadour aesthetic while proffering gloriously catchy neo-soul anthems such as "Tightrope" and "Cold War," off last year's The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III).
These are talents we need more of in America. Freakin' try harder to support them, OK?