Sixteen years since his sugary debut Just the Way You Are became a megahit, Bruno Mars is the most-streamed musician in the world. Last year, the Hawaiian-born 40-year-old became the first (and still only) artist to reach 150m monthly listeners on Spotify, and his staying power shows little sign of waning: Mars now has more listeners than even Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. His latest, funk-inspired single I Just Might – which he performed at the Grammys earlier this month, with a brass band, slick suit and his trademark bandana – shot to the top of the US Hot 100, making him only the fourth male soloist in chart history to achieve 10 No 1 singles there, after Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Drake.
“We always say, I don’t know when that happened,” laughs Philip Lawrence, the songwriter and producer who has helped shape Mars’s story, when asked about their huge success together. The two musicians were introduced in 2006 and bonded over a shared dream to get signed and get on stage. “That was our connection – let’s perform!”
Stardom didn’t come quickly enough, though, so along with Ari Levine they formed songwriting and production trio the Smeezingtons, and shaped the sound of the 2010s by creating a raft of chart-toppers for other artists, including CeeLo Green’s omnipresent Fuck You. When, finally, they got the chance to launch Mars as a solo artist – with his debut album propelled by the singles Just the Way You Are, Grenade and The Lazy Song, all UK No 1s – Lawrence led Mars’s live band the Hooligans and they toured the world together. He grins at the memory: “Showtime!”
Two decades after they first met, their artistic relationship remains chartdefining: Lawrence recently achieved his 19th Grammy nomination for contributions to APT., a duet between Mars and K-pop star Rosé (Mars himself has 16 Grammys from 36 nominations). Last week, this retro pop-rock track about a Korean drinking game was confirmed as the world’s biggest-selling single of 2025 by industry body IFPI.
For Lyndsey Havens, executive editor of US industry bible Billboard, it’s a winning combination of confidence and consistency that gives Mars his longevity. “A Bruno Mars song ages really well, no matter when it’s released,” she says. “There’s nostalgia built into the music, but his songs can’t be placed in a certain time. There’s nothing that screams 2026 to me about I Just Might; he focuses on what he knows and what he likes.”
As Mars’s fourth studio album, The Romantic, is released on Friday, his global stronghold seems assured. But Lawrence insists that the partnership never think that way. “Bruno’s dedication to the art of writing songs is something I’ve never witnessed before. In the studio, he has to feel it first – we have to feel it first.” After recording, Lawrence says it’s a case of thinking: “Have we put out the best art that we could in this moment? If that’s a yes, then everything else is for everyone else to figure out.” That said, they aren’t immune to success: “It’s fucking incredible,” Lawrence admits with a grin. “We still have that first-time-around feeling inside.”
He attributes Mars’s enduring popularity – and the immediacy of their discography – to childhoods rooted in the great American songbook. They both performed in family bands from a young age; Lawrence’s family was rooted in church music, while Mars was Hawaii’s youngest Elvis impersonator. “It means that we know what those songs can do for people,” Lawrence says. “The chord progressions, the heartfelt moments. At our core, we’re sappy guys. We live in our emotions, and we always want to write from that space: how do we make people feel what we’re feeling?”
Havens acknowledges that “there are people who will say his music is corny, because it is so about love. But one of my favourite things about him is that he really owns it. If an artist can do that, all of their fans can do it too. There’s no shame involved, there’s no guilty pleasure sensation – it’s just good music.” She believes that this “head down” approach, rooted in his personal preference for the vintage sounds of funk, soul and classic R&B, helps Mars to stay current without cleaving to musical trends: “I don’t associate him with just one song – I associate him with an entire vibe, an entire aesthetic.”
In April, Mars will release his first compilation record, Collaborations, as part of his ambassadorship for Record Store Day. Its savvy title, as with the title of his new album, doubles down on his existing reputation: a smooth-voiced romantic, and a prolific, versatile collaborator. The compilation tracks a history of his duets and co-writes, from Travie McCoy’s 2010 earworm Billionaire to the floor-filling Uptown Funk with Mark Ronson, and Die with a Smile, Mars’s blockbuster power ballad with Lady Gaga. Havens points to this as further evidence of his international, intergenerational listenership: “It’s a vast pool of musicians across genre, age, where they grew up. That he’s able to successfully work with all those different artists tells you how broad his fanbase is.”
Later this year, The Romantic Tour will take Mars on an extensive stadium run – including six already sold-out Wembley dates in July. Is it possible we’re approaching peak Bruno? Havens laughs. “Every time he releases something he’s at a new peak.”