American hip-hop, funk, and pop artist Bruno Mars was originally born Peter Gene Hernandez on October 8, 1985 in Hawaii. He is a mixture of beautiful cultures, his father being half Puerto Rican and half Eastern European Jewish while his mother was Filipino.
His parents helped pass down his love for music. They met while performing in Hawaii where his mother was a hula dancer, and his father played the drums. He is one of six children and they all grew up performing. In fact, Bruno Mars was singing and dancing with the family band from the very young age of four. The band was called the Love Notes, and they continued performing until Bruno's parents got divorced. During this time, Bruno entertained a large number of people in large, local events.
Bruno's sister played a demo for a record label in Los Angeles, California, and the rest is history. He flew to California and started a new career as a musician just after he graduated high school.
As with many new artists, his first attempts to break into the industry was more difficult than anticipated. In the beginning, many people encouraged Bruno to market himself as a Latin artist and sing in Spanish. Bruno felt that this put him into a box and that his talents could stretch across multiple genres. While obviously talented, he continued to talk to music labels but didn't get very far. During this time, Bruno led a cover band. He also continued to make connections and work in the industry as a songwriter for acts like Brandy,
Flo Rida,
Adam Levine, and Sean Kingston.
Finally, Bruno Mars was able break out with his own solo album. The album was called
Doo-Wops and Hooligans. It featured the popular song, "
Just the Way You Are" that hit number one in a number of different countries. He even went on to win a Grammy for the song.
After this first bit of success, he continued to move forward. He came out with two more albums:
Unorthodox Jukebox and
24K Magic. He also came out with the extremely popular single "
Uptown Funk" with Mark Ronson.
Ultimately, Bruno Mars has won 11 Grammys and 9 American Music Awards. He has also performed at the Super Bowl half-time show, one of the most televised musical performances every year. He has toured extensively following each album release and is currently doing a Las Vegas residency.