Bruno Mars Essentials

Editors’ Notes Gliding between styles with a grin, Bruno Mars is a true triple threat. He's a singer with the sweetness and swagger of his '60s and '70 idols. The one-that-got-away intensity of a soulful ballad like “When I Was Your Man” will leave you in tears, and then this smooth operator will seduce you with the sly boasts of a dance floor-destroying anthem like “Uptown Funk.” As a songwriter, Mars is a human jukebox loaded with decades of hooks, racking up retro hits like the pulse-pounding New Wave rocker “Locked Out of Heaven” and adding bumping hip-hop breaks to the intensely sweet love song “Just the Way You Are.” But while Mars may have learned his behind-the-boards chops by studying the past—whether that means the time-tested Motown playbook or the electro-shocked pulse of post-disco R&B—even his delectable throwback jams like “24K Magic” have a luscious sheen that's pure 21st century pop.