Latest Release
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- 16 AUG 2024
- 1 Song
- Die With A Smile - Single · 2024
- Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Deluxe) · 2010
- Unorthodox Jukebox · 2012
- Young, Wild & Free (feat. Bruno Mars) - Single · 2011
- Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Deluxe) · 2010
- B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray (Deluxe) · 2009
- Hell: The Sequel (Deluxe Edition) · 2011
- Uptown Special · 2014
- An Evening With Silk Sonic · 2021
- Unorthodox Jukebox · 2012
Essential Albums
- Heading into Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars was already launching a total takeover of the pop planet. As a member of The Smeezingtons—a writing-production trio that also included Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine—Mars played a crucial role in the 2010 successes of CeeLo Green’s “Fuck You”, Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire” and B.o.B.’s “Nothin’ on You”. That same year came his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which featured the chart-topping singles “Just the Way You Are” and “Grenade”. Though only in his mid-twenties, Mars already had the kind of career year most artists would never be able to beat. Still, it wasn’t until the 2012 release of Unorthodox Jukebox that it became clear Mars had the makings of a future Super Bowl headliner. The 10-track album, clocking in at a concise 35 minutes, wasn’t just a pop blockbuster—it was a superstar-making statement. And while Unorthodox Jukebox begins and ends with the doo-wop stylings Mars employed on his debut—on “Young Girls” and “If I Knew”, respectively—the album represents a style-hopping leap forward, featuring everything from reggae-pop (the Police-indebted smash “Locked Out of Heaven”) to soul-baring balladry (the chart-topping “When I Was Your Man”) to roller-skating R&B (the sparkling “Treasure”). On Jukebox jams like “When I Was Your Man”, you can also hear Mars growing as a singer, one who’s confident enough to flex his vocals backed only by his own piano—with nowhere to hide. The album also finds Mars making some unorthodox choices with his lyrics, which are occasionally riskier (and more risqué). There’s sex, drugs and alcohol mixing into the Princely allegories of “Gorilla” and “Moonshine”, while “Natalie” and “Money Make Her Smile” reveal the baller paranoia of a man who’s no longer the romantic innocent of his breakout single, “Just the Way You Are”.
- 2024
- 2021
- 2021
- 2019
- 2019
Artist Playlists
- Slick funk and intense soul from the charming king of retro-pop.
- Nobody has more fun—with more style—than Bruno.
- Lean back and relax with some of their mellowest cuts.
- The do-it-all pop auteur is grounded in classic soul.
- Upbeat, soulful pop calibrated for present-day listening.
- Grab the mic and sing along with some of their biggest hits.
- 2021
- 2021
Appears On
- Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
- He’s one of our best entertainers and this song proved why.
- Revisiting two legendary shows in Super Bowl Halftime history.
- Celebrating Bruno Mars Day with favorites from his Essentials.
- Mixing up our favorites from Bruno Mars' Essentials.
- Jayde Donovan embarks on an unorthodox exploration of the smash album.
About Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars has a good story about Prince: Mars is hanging out at an awards show, during a commercial break. The crowd is filled with celebrities. Suddenly, Mars feels the room shift, people part, and there he is, Mars told Apple Music in a 2016 interview—Prince, “just floating by, levitating by.” Prince catches Mars’ eye and gives him a thumbs-up, and Mars—stunned—gives Prince a thumbs-up back. “And that’s it,” Mars said. “What more can you ask?” More than a Prince co-sign? How about a stack of multi-platinum records? The privilege of being able to entertain people the world over? Mars has those too. But you get the sense that the nod from Prince was affirmation of a higher order. Even when he was living on instant ramen noodles and trying to find his way into the industry, Mars knew he didn’t just want to be a songwriter or a singer or a producer, but—like Prince, or maybe Michael Jackson—a total pop package, the kind of artist who’s as powerful in the studio as they are onstage. Those records, though: “Uptown Funk”, “Locked Out of Heaven”, “That’s What I Like”. Fun, omnivorous, generation-bridging. The kind of stuff that Mom will be pulling you onto the dance floor for. Mars could do old-fashioned showmanship, could credibly play the crooner with a live band to boot. But he also had an ear for hip-hop and R&B, could—like all great pop—collapse the distance between then and now, Black music and white. Most of all, he knew how much retro was retro enough: Music that made you think about the past, not pine for it. Born Peter Hernandez in Honolulu in 1985, Mars took the stage early, famously doing Elvis impersonations with a family revue at a local hotel before he even hit kindergarten. (In one formative moment, young Mars wet his jumpsuit during “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, but finished without flinching.) As a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a deal with Motown Records. The deal went nowhere, but Mars kept himself afloat by writing and producing with a team called The Smeezingtons, which he helped found. In 2010, he released his debut, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. By 2012’s Unorthodox Jukebox, the image had gotten a little grittier, the sound a little more diverse and the retro affectations—goodbye, pompadour—a little less pronounced. Leaning on the slick bounce of ’80s and ’90s funk and R&B, 24K Magic followed in 2016, sweeping its nominations at the Grammys. A confessed perfectionist, Mars pushes on. “All the statues or Time magazine—that s**t is beautiful and made my parents and my family proud and all that,” he told Apple Music. “But there’s this battle within—that you always wanna. You got this fighter’s spirit. I still feel like I’m chasing to prove something to myself, that I got a better song in me.”
- BORN
- 8 October 1985
- GENRE
- Pop