An emotional Girl 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 sturdy.
“I don’t know music with out Bruno,” she says. Mars meekly seems to be 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 Scorching 100 chart for 52 weeks in a row, standing the check of time regardless of surges of reputation for different genres.
We would not know music with out Bruno, both.
In accordance with information from Luminate, “Die With a Smile” is the most-streamed tune globally for the primary half of the 12 months. No. 2 is “APT.,” Mars’s hit with Okay-pop artist Rosé. For anybody who’s left their Spotify on autoplay this 12 months, that may not be stunning, however Mars isn’t selling an album and even on tour. He’s one of many largest pop stars of 2025, changing into the first artist to surpass 150 million month-to-month listeners on Spotify in January, however he’s not performing prefer it. He’s simply quietly releasing bangers and performing sporadically at a Las Vegas on line casino.
Bruno Mars is featured on the 2 most-streamed songs globally within the first half of 2025. (Luminate)
Nothin’ on you
Mars is so extensively liked 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 mentioned, his followers, who’re referred to as “Hooligans” in honor of his 2010 album Doo-Wops and Hooligans, would find it irresistible if he’d share just a little bit extra.
Although they recognize Mars’s shout-outs, some Hooligans’s persistence is carrying 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 every single place, however Hooligans are in a posting drought — particularly in comparison with fandoms for different main artists dominating popular culture proper now, like Girl 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 business. Typically a part of the fan base will get just a little annoyed as a result of Bruno goes quiet and we don’t get any information about what he’s engaged on, so it looks like we’re in the dead of night,” 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 take pleasure in it simply as a lot as we did final 12 months.”
Bruno Mars on the 2025 Grammys. (Kevin Winter/Getty Photos for The Recording Academy)
Herick has been a Tremendous Hooligan since 2011, when he first stumbled upon “The Lazy Track.” He says Mars is exclusive — whereas onstage, he creates a reference to followers different artists might solely hope to emulate.
“You allow 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 a degree of studying about our cultures, our language, our traditions — and that’s one thing very significant and consultant.”
What units Mars aside from his fellow pop stars is his intense worldwide attain. In any case, that’s why he’s dominating world 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 might converse English effectively.“All I might 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 study English so in the future I might actually speak 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 liked. Even when he didn’t, fandom isn’t nearly looking for the eye of the artist that individuals rally round — it’s in regards to the group that varieties 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 probably the most good-looking man alive, nevertheless it’s means past that. His songs are pure perfection; they contact my soul in methods I can’t even put into phrases. It looks like his voice runs by way of my veins.”
Bruno Mars performs throughout 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 immediate 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 exhibits when he releases one thing.”
Simply the way in which you’re
Mars may not 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 power is his broad attraction, 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 have to consistently submit or soar on each social media development as a result of his songs already dwell in folks’s lives; at weddings, on street journey playlists, in karaoke nights,” she says. “He’s mastered that candy spot between cross-generational attraction and present relevance.”
“Uptown Funk” or “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 ft, Walther explains. His newer releases comply with an identical mannequin with sturdy hooks and a definite sound that isn’t overly reliant on passing developments.
Bruno Mars accepts the Grammy for Document of the Yr for “Uptown Funk” in 2016. (Robyn Beck/AFP through Getty Photos)
Blake Evans, who owns a marriage 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 parts that make an excellent marriage ceremony tune, and Mars has each of them down.
The primary is reputation. Individuals know Mars’s songs effectively sufficient to sing together with them. “When individuals 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 as if he’s in every single place. Seventeen of his songs have multiple 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 vital 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 sudden along with his January 2025 collaboration with rapper Sexyy Crimson, the raunchy strip membership anthem “Fats Juicy & Moist,” he got here as near flopping as he ever has — the tune peaked at No. 17 on the Scorching 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 refined stage 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 Photos)
He’s secure and straightforward to market. It helps that, regardless of one felony drug arrest in 2011, Mars has largely managed to keep away from controversy. He may not replace his social media as a lot as his pop star friends, however that could possibly be a part of his technique. It makes him appear non-public 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 would not have a tune of summer season, however we’ve obtained a transparent frontrunner for artist of the 12 months — even when his hits debuted in 2024.
