A versatile palladium-catalyzed double carbonylation of aryl bromides has been developed. Using Pd(OAc)2/BuPAd2 as the catalyst system and DBU as the base, under relatively low CO pressure, various a-ketoamides were produced in good yields. In order to get insight into the reaction pathway, real time NMR studies were performed as well and a correlated reaction mechanism is been given.