- Silk Sonic, a musical supergroup consisting of modern funk kings Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, will be performing at the 63rd Grammy Awards.
- The newly-formed supergroup has already released its first single, with a full album on the way.
- That single, "Leave the Door Open," has already topped 33 million views on YouTube.
Like every other major award show, the Grammys are going to have to be a little different this year. Still, by hook or by crook, the show has promised performances from many of the biggest names in the music world. That includes Billie Eilish, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, and Phoebe Bridgers, among many others. But one name you may hear during the show that doesn't sound quite familiar is Silk Sonic. And that's because Silk Sonic is a group that didn't even officially exist a month ago. But it's a performance you won't want to miss—and almost certainly will jam to—because it's the name of a new band that features Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak.
The Grammys have said that the performances at this year's ceremony—which was originally scheduled for late January before being pushed back to March 14—will find performers “coming together, while still safely apart, to play music for each other as a community and celebrate the music that unites us all.” While we're not quite sure what, exactly, that all means, we do know that Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak will be performing together—and they had a great social media campaign to let fans know they'd be doing just that.
The social media campaign, as you'll see in a few of the many tweets involved below, created a "break-up" of the brand new Silk Sonic. The storyline is as follows: Paak and Mars were left off the initial Grammy performer list, and the two very publicly aired their annoyances with that, and with one another. Along the way, Paak creates a hashtag to "get the Recording Academy's attention," titled #LetSilkSonicThrive. They also break up! But as the Grammys tweet eventually puts it, Silk Sonic will now be reuniting (even though they are a brand new group) for one night only. OK then!
But we understand you might see this series of chaotic tweeting and still have some questions around this fun new supergroup. It's OK. We've got you covered.
What is Silk Sonic? Better yet, who are Silk Sonic?
Silk Sonic is the name of a brand new supergroup/band from Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, both of whom are music superstars in their own right. Mars, one of the biggest musicians in the world, is a former Album of the Year winner at the Grammys and Super Bowl Halftime Show performer. Paak first broke through with his 2016 album Malibu, which he worked on with the help of production by Dr. Dre, and quickly became one of the biggest crossover stars in the world of hip-hop.
While both artists make some magic on their own, their distinct funky styles would seem to the layman to be music that fits together fairly naturally; with the first Silk Sonic single "Leave the Door Open," it's clear that it works as well in execution as it would seem in theory.
"Leave The Door Open" is just the first single from the group's planned full album, titled An Evening With Silk Sonic. The sure-to-be-full-of-jams album will be "hosted" by funk legend Bootsy Collins.
How did Silk Sonic form?
On February 26, Mars and Paak revealed that they had joined forces to create a new band, titled Silk Sonic. "We locked in and made an album. The band’s called Silk Sonic," Mars captioned his Instagram. Paak shared the same message. "WE MADE AN ALBUM!! YALL GET THE FIRST SONG NEXT FRIDAY 3/5!! ROCKET EMOJIS AND ALL THAT!!!"
Both stars have since been avidly promoting the project on their respective social media accounts, but you may be wondering a bit about how this whole project got started in the first place. Those origins are easily traced: Paak opened for Mars' 24K Magic tour back in 2017. While on tour, the two became friends, and, eventually, came up with a phrase, which eventually became a hook, which then morphed into some serious studio sessions with the intent of seriously making some music. That original phrase-turned-hook? It's on the upcoming album.
"It was like, 'Well, want to come back tomorrow?'" Mars told Apple Music's Zane Lowe in an interview. "And we kept coming up with music. It felt like why you fall in love with music in the first place. And jamming with your buddy… There’s no plan, just working out the parts and trying to excite each other... that's why this wouldn't happen if it didn't make sense and it didn't feel natural and organic. This was a series of events that led us to 'Man, why don't we just do it?'"
Through the years, the two realized that they have a love of much of the same music, and as their frienship grew, so too did their plans to create more music together. While many tried to make music remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, Paak and Mars worked on Silk Sonic face-to-face in the studio.
"When you get in and you can jam with someone and other artists that could hold it down and you're bouncing, that's different," Paak said in the same interview. "That's the difference and you're really creating a groove from scratch. You guys are trying to figure out what's going to work."
We don't know when An Evening With Silk Sonic will drop just yet, but rest assured that it will provide some major good vibes for a year that, frankly, deserves it. May Silk Sonic's Grammy Performance bring some good Silk Sonic album energy, and may all of that goodness translate to the good vibes we all want in 2021.
