Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 29, 2020

He's a talented guy!

Bruno Mars is a talented guy - not only does he have an incredibly impressive voice, but he's also a fantastic songwriter too, with an impressive career. Having been a child star, Bruno is no stranger to the showbiz game, having been performing since the age of just four-years-old.

But where is he from? How did he get famous? And what is Bruno Mars' real name? We've answered all your burning questions about the 'Uptown Funk' singer below...

Bruno Mars is an American singer and songwriter from Hawaii. His dad is half Puerto Rican and half Ashkenazi Jewish, originally from Brooklyn in New York, and his mum emigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii as a child, and has some Spanish ancestry.

His birthday is 8th October 1985, which makes him currently 34-years-old.

Bruno was born Peter Gene Hernandez, and got his stage name from his father, who nicknamed him 'Bruno' at the age of two, who thought that he looked like wrestler Bruno Sammartino.

He told Parade magazine, "Bruno is after Bruno Sammartino, who was this big, fat wrestler. I was this chunky little baby, so my dad used to call me that as a nickname. Mars came up because a lot of girls say Im out of this world!"

Coming from a musical family, Bruno was performing from the age of four with his family band, The Love Notes. He became well-known for his impression of Elvis Presley, which won him a cameo role in 1992 film Honeymoon in Vegas, starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker.

He learned to play the guitar, and made a demo which his sister in Los Angeles played for Mike Lynn, head of A&R at Dr Dre's label. He moved to LA after graduating from school at 17, and although he was signed to label Motown Records, it didn't work out and he was dropped less than a year after the signing.

Bruno landed a publishing deal in 2005, and was mentored by Steve Lindsey at Westside Independent, where he started working with Philip Lawrence and the pair became songwriting partners. In 2006, Bruno ignited the interest of Atlantic Records, but they waited three years to sign him so that he could develop as an artist, and he used this time to become a record producer and wrote songs for other artists.

When he wrote 'Nothin' On You' for B.o.B and appeared as a featured vocalist on the song, Bruno's star finally began to rise and he released debut single 'Just the Way You Are' in 2010, reaching Number 1 in both the UK and the US. After the success of 'Just the Way You Are', Bruno released his debut album 'Doo-Wops & Hooligans' in 2010, which spawned other singles 'Grenade', 'The Lazy Song' and 'Marry You' amongst others and reached Number 1 in the UK.

He supported Maroon 5 and OneRepublic on their tours in 2010, and performed on his own tour 'The Doo-Wops & Hooligans Tour' from November 2010 until January 2012. In 2011, he won his first ever Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for 'Just the Way You Are', and also earned six other nominations that year.

His second album 'Unorthodox Jukebox' was released in 2012, featuring singles 'Locked Out of Heaven', 'When I Was Your Man' and 'Treasure' and peaking at Number 1 in the UK. He went on his second tour, the 'Moonshine Jungle Tour', from June 2013 until October 2014. Bruno had a Las Vegas residency in 2013, and also had a huge year in 2014 - headlining the prestigious Super Bowl halftime show, voicing the character of Roberto in 2014 film Rio 2 and also co-writing and featuring on Mark Ronson's track 'Uptown Funk', which was one of the most popular songs of the decade.

Supporting Coldplay's Super Bowl halftime show with Beyonc Knowles-Carter in 2015, Bruno's third album '24K Magic' was released in November 2016, spawning singles '24K Magic', 'That's What I Like' and 'Finesse', which he later released a remix of featuring Cardi B.

He went on his third tour - the '24K Magic World Tour' - in March 2017, finishing in December 2018, and announced his second Las Vegas residency in February 2019. Bruno worked with Ed Sheeran on his 'No.6 Collaborations Project', appearing on song 'Blow' along with country singer Chris Stapleton.

In October 2019, Bruno posted a photo of himself in the recording studio, teasing that he was working on new music. This was confirmed by a representative in March 2020, who said that he's "in the creative process of working on his next album." Bruno is also working with Disney on a "music-themed theatrical narrative".

As mentioned already, Bruno has been the recipient of plenty of awards through the years! Here's a list of just a few awards he's won...

2011: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for 'Just The Way You Are'

2015: Best Pop Vocal Album for 'Unorthodox Jukebox'

2016: Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for 'Uptown Funk' with Mark Ronson

2017: Album of the Year for '25' by Adele (as producer)

2018: Album of the Year and Best R&B Album for '24K Magic', Record of the Year for '24K Magic', and Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for 'That's What I Like'.

2012: International Male Solo Artist

2014: International Male Solo Artist

2015: British Single of the Year for 'Uptown Funk' with Mark Ronson

2011: MTV Europe Music Awards - Best New Act and Best Push

2013: MTV Europe Music Awards - Best Song for 'Locked Out of Heaven'

2013: MTV Video Music Awards - Best Male Video for 'Locked Out of Heaven' and Best Choreography for 'Treasure'

Bruno has also won four Guinness World Records: 'Most Viewed Halftime Performance' for his Super Bowl Halftime show in 2015, 'Most weeks at No.1 on the U.S. Digital Song Sales' for 'Uptown Funk' in 2017, 'First Male Artist to Achieve three 10-million-selling-singles' in 2017 and 'Most followed male chart-topper on Musical.ly' in 2018.

Bruno has been in a relationship with model Jessica Caban since 2011, and apparently live together in the Hollywood Hills. The pair are very private about their relationship.

Bruno also previously dated Rita Ora, who confirmed the relationship in a 2012 interview, saying that it had been "love at first sight" after Bruno was hired to write some songs for her, but the relationships fizzled after two years because of their respective careers.

You can hear Bruno Mars' biggest hits on the Free Radio playlist.

For great music, brilliant banter and incredible competitions tune into Free Radio on FM, on your digital radio, on your phone, and on your smart speaker across the West Midlands. We give you the biggest hits from the worlds hottest artists. Youll find new favourites every day and hear the songs you've missed from the last few years.

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Bruno Mars: Everything you need to know - Free Radio

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