Indiana native, Bruno Mars to share Super Bowl XLVIII spotlight

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Cheryl Lawrence knows exactly when to watch for the most exciting action in Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVIII.

It will come exactly in the middle of the game when her son, Evansville native Philip Lawrence II, takes the stage to dance and sing with his writing partner, pop star Bruno Mars, for the halftime show.

Her husband, Philip Senior, and another son, Shane, will watch the entire game with members of Bruno Mars’ family from a luxury box at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

They may not get enough tickets for her and others in the family to attend the stadium, but that’s fine with Lawrence. She’ll stay in Manhattan and take in a Broadway matinee, allowing plenty of time to make sure to get back to her hotel in time for the real Super Bowl action, said the former Evansville resident in a call from Los Angeles.

“My husband and sons are football fans, absolutely,” she told the Evansville Courier & Press (http://bit.ly/1fjED3X ), and they look forward to seeing the game at the stadium. “All I know is there is some sports event surrounding my son’s singing during halftime. I’m watching for the halftime show.”

The event comes a week after she and her husband joined their son at the Grammy Awards, where Mars won best pop vocal album with “Unorthodox Jukebox,” a collection of songs he wrote with Lawrence and Ari Levine, the songwriting trio known as the Smeezingtons.

About 28.9 million television viewers saw Mars thank his fellow Smeezingtons when he collected his Grammy Sunday. Three times that many are expected to tune in when Mars performs with Lawrence and the rest of the band during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime.

Philip II left the day after the Grammys to begin rehearsals for the Super Bowl showcase, said his mother. “They’ve got a really tight show lined up,” she added, but she can’t talk about it. “It’s all top secret.”

This is an Associated Press Member Exchange shared by the Evansville Courier & Press.