All about the American Singer – Bruno Mars

Born Librarian on 8^th October 1985, Bruno Mars found success in his career only in the late 2000’s when he started writing songs for famous artists such as K’Naan’s popular song “Wavin’ Flag” which later became the theme song for Winter Olympics of 2010. After several years of struggle in the industry, Bruno Mars broke out as a singer in the year 2010 for his song “Nothin’ on You.” In the same year he released his debut album entitled Doo-Wops & Hooligans.

Quick Facts:

• Nick name: Bruno
• Date of birth: 8^th October, 1986
• Place of birth: Honolulu, Hawaii
• Origin: Hawaii
• Profession: Singer and Song-writer
• Known for: His musical hit song “Nothin’ on You” that was released in the year 2010 and it emerged him as a premiere pop songwriter.
• Website: http://www.brunomars.com/

Childhood and growing up years:

Peter Gene Hernandez popularly known by his stage name Bruno Mars was born on 8^th of October 1986. He was raised in Waikiki which is situated in the neighborhood of Honolulu of Hawaii. His parents Pete Hernandez was a decent from the Puerto Rican and mother Bernadette known as “Bernie” was a Filipino decent. However, Bruno Mars’ mother emigrated from Hawaii to Philippines when she was a child when her father relocated to an island near Brooklyn in New York. The parents met while they were performing at a show where his mother was a hula dancer and the father was a percussionist. When the singer was two, he was given the nickname “Bruno” by his father because of his much resemblance with the chubby professional wrestler known as Bruno Sammartino. Bruno Mars had five siblings and he was drowned from a musical family in which he was exposed to a diverse genres of music such R&B, hip-hop, rock and reggae. His mother was also a singer apart from being a dancer while his father used his musical skills to perform Rock n Roll music. Mars started working with music from a very young age and his uncle who was an Elvis impersonator took Mars at the age of three he took Mars to accompany him while performing on stage. During these times, he performed songs by popular artists such as The Temptations, Michael Jackson and The Isley Brothers. By the age of four, Bruno Mars was performing for five days per week in the family’s band The Love Notes during which he became famous for his impersonation for Elvis Presley.

After giving a number of performances in number of musical venues in his hometown, Mars decided to pursue a career in music and for this purpose he relocated to Los Angeles and enrolled himself in a musical school. In the year of 1990, Bruno Mars was featured in the MidWeek magazine as “Little Elvis” and had his cameo in the year 1992 in a film “Honeymoon in Vegas”. He later reflected his thoughts on this title and said that he was greatly influenced by Presley and confessed that he was a big fan of Elvis and also the musical background of his family has had a huge impact on him to take up music future profession. In the year of 2003, he graduated from the President Theodore Roosevelt High School and then at the age of 17 he moved to California to take a professional musical course from a reputed institution. When he started giving stage performances, he adopted the nickname given by his father as his stage name and also added “Mars” at the end of it as most girls comment that they are out of this world and he always thought of himself of being from Mars.

Just after his relocation to Los Angeles, he struck a deal with the Motown Records in the year 2004 but it proved to be an unsuccessful stint. Although, the deal went nowhere, the experience he acquired from this recording studio proved beneficial in his long-run musical career when he met the producer and songwriter Philip Lawrence, who also signed him for a label.

Claim to fame:

Lawrence and Bruno Mars along with the engineer Ari Levine began working together and they wrote songs. Soon they formed a production team which was known as The Smeezingtons and in the year 2006, Lawrence introduced Mars to their future manager named Aaron Bay-Schuck, at the Atlantic Records were he heard a few songs of Mars while he played on his guitar, immediately impressed by Mars’ songs he wanted to sign him but then he took three long years for Atlantic Records to strike a deal with Bruno Mars for a label. Meanwhile, Bay-Schuck recruited the Smeezingtons and Mars to produce and also write songs for a number of label artists. Although, Mars ultimate goal was to become a solo artist, he began his musical career by writing and producing for other artists so that it would help him to improve his skills of songwriting and at the same time it would help him to discover his skills and while being able to enhance his skills of an artist on the type of artist that he wanted to be. Bay-Schuck terms this period of Bruno Mars as the time of “self-discovery” as these years played a crucial role in the success of Mars’ future musical career.

By the end of 2000’s, Bruno Mars found his success as he started writing songs for popular artists such as the smash hit “Right Round”, “Billionaire”, “Wavin’ Flag” which was the theme song for the 2010 Winter Olympics. By the same time he was becoming a successful solo artist and he obtained his recognition when he was featured in “Nothin’ on You” for which he also wrote the song. Mars was also seen Travie McCoy’s song which was titled as “Billionaire”. Both these songs reached its peaks and were seen the top ten charts all over the world. After the success of these songs he released his debut play which was entitled as “It’s Better If You Don’t Understand” in the year 2010 on 11^th May. This play soon took the 99^th position in the Billboard 200 charts and apart from this he also produced a single “The Other Side”. The song features the singer Cee Lo Green and also B.O.B. Bruno Mars once again collaborate with Green in the year of 2010 in August co-writing a single “Fuck You”. At the same time he performed a medley of “Nothin’ on You” and also “Airplanes” along with Hayley Williams and B.O.B at the venue of 2010 MTV Video Awards in the year 2010 on September 2010.

 Presently:

In the year of 2010 on 4^th October, Mars debutant album which was known as Doo0Wops & Hooligans was released digitally. At the same time his lead single, “Just the Way you Are” was released on 19^th July and this reached its top in the Billboard Hot 100 worldwide. The music video of this album was released on 8^th September 2010 and the second single “Grenade” released on 28^th September. This song was also a huge success and took its position in the international chart list. In the U.S, the album Doo-Wops & Hooligans stood at the third position in the Billboard 200 in the week of 13^th October 2010 and it also saw a great selling in the market as 55,000 copies were sold. There was positive response to album even by the critics and the famous Leah Greenblatt of the Entertainment Weekly greatly praised the music of Bruno Mars and commented on his music as being an “instant-access melodies”. After this, Mars began his success tours on 6^th October 2010 and then made a toured to Europe on 18^th October, 2010 where the tour was named as Hands All Over.

In the year of 2010, September 19^th Mars was arrested by the Las Vegas officials on the charge of cocaine and during his interrogation with one of the police officials, Mars’ confessed that what he had done was foolish of him and that he has never used drugs earlier. He was guilty of felony drug charges and in return of this he was supposed to pay $2000 as fine and 200 hours of community service and also attend a drug counseling session in order to erase the criminal charges against him and promised to remain out of trouble.

The year of 2011, February 13^th saw Bruno Mars take his first Grammy Award in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. He also had six more nominations in various other categories such as the Best Rap, Record of the Year etc. for his songs “Nothin’ on You” and “Fuck You”. In the same year on 16^th September he released another single titled “Lighter” which featured Mars in the song. This song had received mixed reviews from fans and also critics but majority of them criticized Bruno Mars for doing such a song. In the same month on 22^nd September, he announced on his website about his new song “It Will Rain” which was going to appear in the movie “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part I”. On 30^th October 2011 Bruno Mars gave an exclusive performance in the show “The X-Factor UK” of the Runaway Baby part of the results session. On the same day, Mars was nominated to six other nominations for Grammy Awards.

Bruno Mars is also famous for displaying his variety of musical styles which are influenced by various genres of music. And he is not just limited to one and made his mark in the genre of rock, reggae, R&B, hip-hop and also pop. He generally says that his work is always an inspiration of other artists. Whatever be his genre, he has emerged to be a successful and a popular artist after his lifetime struggle to reach the top in the music industry. Right now, Bruno Mars is just trying to enjoy his good times.

Trade Marks of Bruno Mars:

• He most often sings in chorus which is generally seen in his rap songs.
• Has a powerful high voice.

Awards and Nominations Received:

In the year 2011, Bruno Mars won the American Music Awards for the song “Himself” in the category of Pop or Rock Music and was also nominated in the category of Adult Contemporary Music for the same song. In the same year, he also won the ASCAP Award for his song “Nothin’ on You” as the Top Rap Song. Mars won the BT Digital Music Awards in the category of Best International Artist. He also won the Billboard award for his song “Just the way you are” in the category of being the Top Radio Song.

Bruno Mars also has one Grammy Ward to his credit for the song “Just the Way you are” which in won the in year of 2011 in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. He has also been nominated six times for the same awards in various categories.

Personal Quotes:

“They say lifes a dream, call this in insomnia cuz this ain’t wonderland damn sure ain’t narnia and once you cross the line you can’t change your mind and yeah I’m a monster but I’m no Frankenstein.”

“Everything’s good right now. It’s really paying off because now my songs are on the radio. It took me a while to finally get it, but when I got it, I think I got it right. And I’m very proud of how my songs are representing me as an artist.”

“It’s an old-school rock ‘n’ roll show. I’m holding a guitar and singing the tunes. That’s what you get. People might think I’m up there with a tux and an orchestra, but it’s the exact opposite. I play with a band who are a bunch of pals, we’re having a blast and our goal is to make everyone in the audience feel the same.”

“I’m a music fan and a student, especially with guys that have been doing it for so long; I’d like to just get in the booth and see what happens. I don’t mind people saying Bruno Mars is pop. Pop is awesome – Michael Jackson’s pop, Prince is pop, it just means you have songs that are connecting with a lot of people so call me pop for all I care.”

“Im gonna spend Valentine’s Day looking for my voice… I think I left it at the Grammy pre party. If anyone finds please give it back! THANKS”