Whitney Hoversten's Impactful Design Features Elation Lighting For Bruno Mars

B

Bruno Mars is undeniably captivating, and behind the scenes lighting designer Whitney Hoversten is shaping the visual spectacle of his shows using cutting-edge lighting. From his eight-year residency at Park MGM in Las Vegas to selling out stadiums worldwide, Hoversten has employed weatherproof Elation PROTEUS lighting to enhance and complement the global superstar's dynamic performances.

For over a decade, Mars has reigned as one of the music industry's most successful artists, with a string of hits spanning multiple genres and 15 Grammy Awards. Unsurprisingly, demand for his performances is at an all-time high. This year began with seven sold-out shows at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, followed by performances in Mexico, and Asia, the grand opening of LA's new Intuit Dome, and regular dates at his Las Vegas residency. He played in Brazil this fall with a record-setting number of shows and will wrap up the year back in Vegas.

Hoversten has been along for the ride for nearly eight years and his position has evolved. Today, he wears many hats including production designer and describes this year's journey as less of a tour and more of a series of always-evolving one-off shows. He notes that the current setup has grown from the 24K Magic World Tour, one of the most successful tours of all time.

Though Mars' popularity has soared since his album debut in 2010, it's only in recent years that he has filled stadiums. Following one-off stadium shows at Allianz Stadium in Sydney in late 2022 and a series of sold-out performances in Japan, Hoversten says the momentum truly skyrocketed, and stadiums quickly became the new 'norm.' However, with a packed schedule, the designer had to adapt the design on the fly, utilizing existing infrastructure and programming.

As more stadium shows were added to the schedule, it became clear that he needed to elevate the show's lighting design to a true stadium scale. In late 2023, Production Manager Joel Forman and Hoversten decided it was time to put an intentional stadium show design together.