![\"\"](\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/614X190-1_Banner.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMore than a Prince cosign? How about a stack of multiplatinum records? The privilege of being able to entertain people the world over? Mars has those too. But you get the sense that the nod from Prince was affirmation of a higher order. Even when he was living on instant ramen noodles and trying to find his way into the industry, Mars knew he didn\u2019t just want to be a songwriter or a singer or a producer, but\u2014like Prince, or maybe Michael Jackson\u2014a total pop package, the kind of artist who\u2019s as powerful in the studio as they are onstage.<\/p>\n Those records, though: \u201cUptown Funk,\u201d \u201cLocked Out of Heaven,\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s What I Like.\u201d Fun, omnivorous, generation-bridging. The kind of stuff that Mom will be pulling you onto the dance floor for. Mars could do old-fashioned showmanship, could credibly play the crooner with a live band to boot. But he also had an ear for hip-hop and R&B, could\u2014like all great pop\u2014collapse the distance between then and now, Black music and white. Most of all, he knew how much retro was retro enough: Music that made you think about the past, not pine for it.<\/p>\n Born Peter Hernandez in Honolulu in 1985, Mars took the stage early, famously doing Elvis impersonations with a family revue at a local hotel before he even hit kindergarten. (In one formative moment, young Mars wet his jumpsuit during \u201cCan\u2019t Help Falling In Love,\u201d but finished without flinching.) As a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a deal with Motown Records. The deal went nowhere, but Mars kept himself afloat by writing and producing with a team called The Smeezingtons, which he helped found. In 2010, he released his debut, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. By 2012\u2019s Unorthodox Jukebox, the image had gotten a little grittier, the sound a little more diverse, and the retro affectations\u2014goodbye, pompadour\u2014a little less pronounced. Leaning on the slick bounce of \u201980s and \u201990s funk and R&B, 24K Magic followed in 2016, sweeping its nominations at the Grammys.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/I-Just-Might-Bruno-Mars.jpg\")