An emotional Woman Gaga clutches her Grammy for Finest Pop Duo/Group Efficiency as she thanks her co-performer, Bruno Mars, earlier than anybody else. Together with her hair dyed jet black and her eyebrows bleached, she’s already deserted the Western aesthetic stylings of their newly award-winning “Die With a Smile” collaboration in favor of a brand new period — however her adoration of him stays robust.
“I don’t know music with out Bruno,” she says. Mars meekly seems down, obscuring a smile as his sun shades disguise his eyes. That was February 2025, and as of August, their duet has remained among the many high 15 songs on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart for 52 weeks in a row, standing the take a look at of time regardless of surges of recognition for different genres.
We’d not know music with out Bruno, both.
In keeping with knowledge from Luminate, “Die With a Smile” is the most-streamed track globally for the primary half of the 12 months. No. 2 is “APT.,” Mars’s hit with Ok-pop artist Rosé. For anybody who’s left their Spotify on autoplay this 12 months, that may not be shocking, however Mars isn’t selling an album and even on tour. He’s one of many greatest pop stars of 2025, turning into the first artist to surpass 150 million month-to-month listeners on Spotify in January, however he’s not appearing prefer it. He’s simply quietly releasing bangers and performing sporadically at a Las Vegas on line casino.
Nothin’ on you
Mars is so broadly beloved and listened to, he doesn’t have to advertise his work with the depth of different pop stars with flashy launch cycles and high-octane tour performances. That stated, his followers, who’re referred to as “Hooligans” in honor of his 2010 album Doo-Wops and Hooligans, would adore it if he’d share just a little bit extra.
Although they admire Mars’s shout-outs, some Hooligans’s persistence is sporting skinny. His Vegas residency tickets are extraordinarily costly and comply with the identical setlist he’s been utilizing for practically a decade. They felt like he solely engages with followers to promote them issues. If that doesn’t change within the new period, some followers say they could transfer on.
His songs is likely to be in all places, however Hooligans are in a posting drought — particularly in comparison with fandoms for different main artists dominating popular culture proper now, like Woman Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter. But, for some, that’s simply part of loving the “24K Magic” crooner.
“As followers, we at all times need extra frequent releases as a result of it’s so thrilling to get new content material from our idols, particularly when a lot is occurring within the trade. Typically a part of the fan base will get just a little pissed off as a result of Bruno goes quiet and we don’t get any information about what he’s engaged on, so it appears like we’re at midnight,” Herick, a 27-year-old biologist from Brazil who runs an X fan account for Mars, tells Yahoo. “However with time, you get used to it, and when one thing new lastly comes, we’ll get pleasure from it simply as a lot as we did [his last release].”
Bruno Mars on the 2025 Grammys. (Kevin Winter/Getty Pictures for The Recording Academy)
Herick has been a Tremendous Hooligan since 2011, when he first stumbled upon “The Lazy Music.” He says Mars is exclusive — whereas onstage, he creates a reference to followers different artists may solely hope to emulate.
“You permit a Bruno present with the sensation that your presence there actually mattered to him — and there’s no higher feeling than seeing your idol giving his all,” Herick says. “He makes some extent of studying about our cultures, our language, our traditions — and that’s one thing very significant and consultant.”
What units Mars other than his fellow pop stars is his intense worldwide attain. In spite of everything, that’s why he’s dominating international charts over artists like Billie Eilish or Benson Boone. Júlia Christiny, additionally from Brazil, tells Yahoo she’s been listening to Mars since “Nothin’ On You” in 2010. She met him two years into her fandom and earlier than she may converse English effectively. “All I may say was, ‘I like you,’ then I cried for half an hour,” Christiny, a 27-year-old software program tester, tells Yahoo. “I instructed myself I’d be taught English so someday I may actually discuss to him. Twelve years later, I lastly met him once more … and this time we had a full dialog!”
She confirmed him her tattoo, a drawing of his nostril, which she says he beloved. Even when he didn’t, fandom isn’t nearly searching for the eye of the artist that folks rally round — it’s in regards to the neighborhood that kinds across the singer. Christiny says she’s met a few of her greatest buddies whereas bonding on-line over Mars.
“Bruno simply isn’t just like the others,” Christiny says. “I believe he’s essentially the most good-looking man alive, nevertheless it’s manner past that. His songs are pure perfection; they contact my soul in methods I can’t even put into phrases. It appears like his voice runs by means of my veins.”
Bruno Mars performs in the course of the 2012 Victoria’s Secret Trend Present. (Michael Stewart/FilmMagic)
Viviana, a 25-year-old dancer and musician from Mexico, first heard Mars’s music in 2012 when her dance instructor performed “Runaway Child.”
“It was prompt love,” she tells Yahoo. “Each time one thing is launched and finally ends up blowing up, it is just like the achievement is mine as a result of I am there supporting it from the primary second. … Bruno is not afraid to take his time creating his artwork; he is such a perfectionist … and it reveals when he releases one thing.”
Simply the best way you’re
Mars won’t command a fan military with the notoriety and fervor of Taylor Swift’s Swifties or BTS’s Military, however he loves his Hooligans. His best energy is his broad enchantment, although. Breanna Walther, president of Suden PR, tells Yahoo that his dominance comes from one thing different artists battle to grasp: “a timeless model in music, not only a second.”
“He’s not chasing algorithms; he doesn’t must consistently submit or bounce on each social media pattern as a result of his songs already stay in folks’s lives — at weddings, on street journey playlists, in karaoke nights,” she says. “He’s mastered that candy spot between cross-generational enchantment and present relevance.”
“Uptown Funk” and “Marry You” are mainstays on the dance ground at milestone occasions. They’re comparatively clear, immediately recognizable and convey folks of all ages to their toes, Walther explains. His newer releases comply with an identical mannequin with robust hooks and a definite sound that isn’t overly reliant on passing tendencies.
Bruno Mars accepts the Grammy for File of the 12 months for “Uptown Funk” in 2016. (Robyn Beck/AFP through Getty Pictures)
Blake Evans, who owns a wedding ceremony leisure firm in Nashville, tells Yahoo he’s definitely performed his justifiable share of Mars songs whereas curating the soundtrack for a pair’s large day. There are two components that make a very good wedding ceremony track, and Mars has each of them down.
The primary is recognition. Individuals know Mars’s songs effectively sufficient to sing together with them. “When persons are celebrating, they need anthems,” Evans says. The second is “danceability” — upbeat, energetic and funky tracks that get folks on the ground.
Mars doesn’t simply dominate weddings — even when he’s mendacity low, it nonetheless looks like he’s in all places. Seventeen of his songs have greater than 1 billion streams on Spotify, and even the uncommon few that aren’t cheerful are nonetheless relentlessly catchy. You need to admire his consistency, which is essential if endurance is what an artist is after. Megan Balyk, vice chairman of Jive PR + Digital, tells Yahoo that innovation is overrated from a publicity standpoint.
When Mars did one thing comparatively surprising along with his January 2025 collaboration with rapper Sexyy Purple, the raunchy strip membership anthem “Fats Juicy & Moist,” he got here as near flopping as he ever has — the track peaked at No. 17 on the Sizzling 100, then fell off the chart inside two months.
The folks know what they need from Mars, and it’s extra of the identical.
“Followers now know what to anticipate from [Mars]. … There’s a delicate degree of nostalgia tied to lots of his songs — and that retro vibe balanced with a recent and fashionable take makes his songs successful that by no means appears to exhaust his audiences,” Balyk says.
Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars of Silk Sonic carry out on the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. (John Esparaza/Getty Pictures)
He’s secure and simple to market. It helps that, regardless of one felony drug arrest in 2011, Mars has largely managed to keep away from controversy. He won’t replace his social media as a lot as his pop star friends, however that may very well be a part of his technique. It makes him appear personal and below management.
“Bruno Mars is proof that belief, consistency and likability could be as highly effective as reinvention,” Balyk says.
His songs are at all times in your ears, however by no means in your face. We’d not have a track of summer season, however we’ve bought a transparent frontrunner for artist of the 12 months — even when his hits debuted in 2024.
