From little Elvis Impersonator to Multi-Grammy Winner: The Story of Bruno Mars

Before he was a multi-Grammy Award Winner, he was young little four-year-old Elvis Presley impersonator that has stunned the world. After Little Elvis grew up, he was signed to Atlantic Records, making singles that became radio hits and became a phenomenal singer and songwriter that earned him 11 Grammy Award wins and 16 nominations being bigger than Elvis.

The Story of Bruno Mars

Peter Gene Hernadez was born on October 8, 1985, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to his parents Peter Hernandez and Bernadette San Pedro Bayot. He was raised in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu. His father is half Puerto Rican and half Ashkenazi Jewish descent (from Ukraine and Hungary), and is originally from Brooklyn, New York. His mother emigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii, and was of Filipino and Spanish ancestry. At a young age, Most of his families and friends wouldn't call him Peter, they would call him "Bruno" (thanks to his father) because of his resemblance to professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino.

At the heights of his career, Bruno got a chance to meet the former wrestler one year before Sammartino's death.

At age 2, he watched and performed his family band, The Love Notes. His father Peter was the percussionist and his mother Bernadette was a background singer. His uncle was an Elvis Presley impersonator, and also encouraged three-year-old Mars to perform songs on stage by Presley and Michael Jackson.

In 1990, he made his first appearance in the media: an article in the New York Times that presented him as “Little Elvis”, he performed in the halftime show of the 1990 Aloha Bowl and two years later he would make a paper with this name in the movie Honey Moon in Vegas. Since he was four years old, he accompanied and supported the family band The Love Notes in all his musical presentations, playing with them five days a week.

Bruno would appear on the UK documentary "Viva Elvis" hosted by Jonathan Ross. When Ross asked young Bruno what he liked about Elvis Presley, four-year-old Bruno says:

"I like his singing, I like his dancing...and his lips"

Four-year-old Bruno on Viva Elvis

In 1992, he appeared in a cameo role in the film Honeymoon in Vegas and was interviewed by Pauly Shore on MTV. When Mars was six years old, he was featured on The Arsenio Hall Show and throughout grade school, he performed with his family's band, two shows a night, covering Frankie Lymon and Little Anthony.

When he was a child he had a small version of a drum set, guitar, piano, and some percussion and learned to play the instruments. When Mars was 12, his parents divorced ending The Love Notes act. His father's various businesses, ranging from temporary-tattoo parlors to memorabilia shops, failed. Consequently, there was no longer a steady source of income. He moved out of his parents' house along with his brother and father. They lived in the "slums of Hawaii", on the back of a car, on rooftops, and in an abandoned bird zoo, Paradise Park, where his father worked before it closed.

From Little Elvis to Artist "Bruno Mars"

When little Elvis impersonator died down, Hernadez grew up living his normal life and attended President Theodore Roosevelt High School. While he was in high school, he made his own band and performed as Michael Jackson impersonator.

After graduating high school in 2003, he moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 to start his music career. While he was in L.A., he starts to adopt his artist name to "Bruno Mars". According to an 2010 interview on RapUP, Herna changed his surname just to add pizzazz as a music artist.

"Bruno is after Bruno Sammartino, who was this big fat wrestler. I guess I was this chunky little baby, so my dad used to call me that as a nickname. The Mars came up just because I felt like I didn't have no pizzazz, and a lot of girls say I'm out of this world, so I was like 'I guess I'm from Mars.'"

Mars on RapUP 2010 interview.

In 2005, Mars landed a music publishing deal with record producer Steve Lindsey at Westside Independent. From there, Mars began writing songs for big-name artists such as Adam Levine, Brandy, Sean Kingston, and Flo Rida.

Fun Fact: Brandy's song "Long Distance" was written by Mars (himself), Phillip Lawrence, Jeff Bhasker, and Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. Bruno also recorded a demo before Brandy nabbed the single for her fifth album Human.

In 2009, he would be featured in Rapper B.o.B single "Nothin' on You" the song would be a smashing hit.

After his hit single with B.o.b, Mars would be featured in another hit single with rapper Travie McCoy "Billionaire" another radio hit.

His Debut

After featuring singles with B.o.b and Travie McCoy, he started working on his debut album. His debut album, Doo Wops & Hooligans was released on October 4, 2010.

Doo Wops & Hooligans topped the charts peaking at three in the Billboard charts with singles "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade" "Marry You" and "Runaway Baby" topping the charts.

At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011, "Just the Way You Are" received a Grammy Award in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category. received five nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012, including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album and Record of the Year and Song of the Year for the single "Grenade". After the success of his first album and his Grammy win for "Just the Way You Are", Mars went on tour with singer Janelle Monae. His second album, Unorthodox Jukebox was released on

His second album was twice as better as his debut album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 then number one with two US Billboard Hot 100 number ones "Locked Out of Heaven" and "When I Was Your Man", which also experienced commercial acclaim in various countries, with the former also topping the Canadian Hot 100 and became radio hits.

The album has sold over six million copies worldwide and has been nominated for two Grammys winning one for Best Pop Vocal Album.

24K Magic takes Gold

Unlike his first and second albums that succeeded and gained him some Grammys, his third album takes the golden cake. His third album, 24K Magic was released on November 18, 2016. 24K was a massive hit becoming number one on the charts with five singles: "24K Magic", "That's What I Like", "Chunky" "Versace on the Floor", and "Finesse" featuring Cardi B topping the number one Billboard charts.

24K Magic was nominated for seven Grammy Awards at the 2018 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best R&B Album. Mars won six of the Grammy Awards for the album while the seventh Grammy Award, Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

Silk Sonic

Mars teamed up with R&B singer Anderson Paak to work on a an album with a group name Silk Sonic. The band would released their album An Evening with Silk Sonic on November 12, 2021 one year after the Covid-19 pandemic. An Evening with Silk Sonic received wide praise from critics and fans alike. Their singles: "Leave the Door Open" "Skate" and "Smokin out the Window" were topping the charts. In 2022, "Leave The Door Open" won four Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance and Best R&B song.

From Little Elvis to Multi-Grammy Winner, it comes to show that Bruno was born to perform.

I swear Bruno should make a biopic about his life. Hopefully soon!!!

Source

YouTube

Fox17

https://history-biography.com/bruno-mars/

https://www.elitedaily.com/entertainment/celebrity/bruno-mars-stage-name-wrestling/1825509

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/how-many-grammy-awards-does-bruno-mars-have.html/

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