The early 2010s were a time when the veils between genres—pop, R&B, rock, dance music, even reggae—were delightfully thin. Coldplay teamed up with Rihanna, who in turn collaborated with Britney Spears (and Slash, too). Meanwhile, Maroon 5 embraced electro-pop and Adele carried the torch for timeless soul. But perhaps no star embodied the zeitgeist more thoroughly—or audaciously—than Bruno Mars, whose 2010 debut, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, became a breakout hit thanks to a panoramic sound that, if it doesn’t encompass every genre under the sun, surely sounds like it. Despite the hook-filled Doo-Wops & Hooligans representing his first stab at recording a full-length album, Mars was no novice when it came to busting down walls between genres. The versatile child-entertainer-turned-in-demand-songwriter had already racked up composer credits for artists as diverse as Brandy, Natasha Bedingfield, and Cobra Starship before he and his production team, The Smeezingtons, started constructing the ambitious album, including a lead single, “Just the Way You Are,” that alone took months to hone. All the hard work paid off. The song’s effortless blend of puppy-love innocence, funky syncopation, and a Coldplay-style chorus helped it become one of the biggest hits of 2010, eventually netting Mars a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Both “Talking to the Moon” and “Marry You” reach similarly soaring heights, showing Mars’ facility as a straight-ahead rocker with an ear for melody. But as the delicious slice of lovers rock “Our First Time” and the soul-folk gem “The Other Side” demonstrate, he's far too curious musically to stick to a single genre, a quality that would steer his subsequent solo releases as well as his work with Silk Sonic, his lush and dreamy supergroup with Anderson .Paak. Mars’ nostalgic streak—the Hawaii native grew up playing oldies, after all—is yet another key flavor in Doo-Wops & Hooligans. But instead of taking center stage, as it w...

Heading into Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars was already launching a total takeover of the pop planet. As a member of The Smeezingtons—a writing-production trio that also included Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine—Mars played a crucial role in the 2010 successes of CeeLo Green’s “Fuck You,” Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire,” and B.o.B.’s “Nothin’ on You.” That same year came his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which featured the chart-topping singles “Just the Way You Are” and “Grenade.” Though only in his mid-twenties, Mars already had the kind of career year most artists would never be able to beat. Still, it wasn’t until the 2012 release of Unorthodox Jukebox that it became clear Mars had the makings of a future Super Bowl headliner. The 10-track album, clocking in at a concise 35 minutes, wasn’t just a pop blockbuster—it was a superstar-making statement. And while Unorthodox Jukebox begins and ends with the doo-wop stylings Mars employed on his debut—on “Young Girls” and “If I Knew,” respectively—the album represents a style-hopping leap forward, featuring everything from reggae-pop (the Police-indebted smash “Locked Out of Heaven”) to soul-baring balladry (the chart-topping “When I Was Your Man”) to roller-skating R&B (the sparkling “Treasure”). On Jukebox jams like “When I Was Your Man,” you can also hear Mars growing as a singer, one who’s confident enough to flex his vocals backed only by his own piano—with nowhere to hide. The album also finds Mars making some unorthodox choices with his lyrics, which are occasionally riskier (and more risqué). There’s sex, drugs, and alcohol mixing into the Princely allegories of “Gorilla” and “Moonshine,” while “Natalie” and “Money Make Her Smile” reveal the baller paranoia of a man who’s no longer the romantic innocent of his breakout single, “Just the Way You Are.”

Bruno Mars has always borrowed deftly from the past without painting himself into the corner of retro culture, whether it’s ’60s soul, ’70s power ballads, or early-’80s New Wave. With 2016’s 24K Magic, the vision is more deliberate: This is a love letter to ’80s and early-’90s R&B, straight up, from the Zapp-like bounce of “24K Magic” to the silk-brief seduction of “Versace on the Floor,” the callouts to Daisy Dukes and perms to the blocky beats of new jack swing (“Finesse”). Mars’ ear for detail remains impressive: Take, for example, the way a skittering, trap-like hi-hat pattern turns the slow jam of “That’s What I Like” into a synthesis of past and present. Likewise, his swagger is so goofy as to be charming (“I got a condo in Manhattan,” he sings on “That’s What I Like”; “Baby girl, what’s happenin’?!”). But for all its fun and personality, what makes 24K Magic interesting is the way Mars manages to capture a moment in the development of R&B before it merged fully with hip-hop—a balance of showmanship, innocence, and sexuality that has defined his style from the beginning. He can take you back to the gym where you had your Valentine’s Day dance, sweaty palms and all—but he can also show you the ways in which the music never left.

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak were already hard at work on what would become An Evening With Silk Sonic when the pandemic shut down live music in early 2020, but they weren’t going to let that stop them from delivering a concert experience to their fans. “All of a sudden, my shows get canceled, Andy's shows get canceled,” Mars told Ebro Darden during their R&B Now interview. “This fear of ‘we’ll never be able to play live again’ comes into play. And to take that away from guys like us, that's all we know. So we're thinking, all right, let's put an album together that sounds like a show.” It began with the project’s lead single, “Leave the Door Open,” a syrupy-sweet piece of retro soul that Mars considers something of a backbone for the project. After its completion, he and .Paak began building out the nine songs of An Evening With Silk Sonic, soliciting help, in the few instances where they needed it, from friends like Bootsy Collins, Thundercat, and even Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. Their access to HOF-worthy firepower notwithstanding, the pair always understood that their own combined musicality was the real draw. “We just wanted it to feel special,” Mars says. “Instead of trying to get too cute with the concept, it's like, what's more special than Anderson .Paak behind a drum set singing a song and me having his back when it's my turn, you know? And the band moving in the same direction? It was just like a musician's dream.” Below, the pair talk through some of the tracks that make An Evening With Silk Sonic an experience fans won’t soon forget. “Leave the Door Open” Bruno Mars: “Me and Andy come from the school of performing and playing live instruments. We wrote ‘Leave the Door Open’ and it was just one of those songs like, dang, I can’t believe we a part of this, and we don't know what it's gonna do, we don't care that it's a ballad or a whatever you wanna call it—to us, this just feels right and it's important. So no...

The last time Bruno Mars released an album of his own, the year was 2016 and the “Locked Out of Heaven” hitmaker had just pivoted from world-beating pop to the R&B grooves he fell in love with as a child—the kind of songs that make you get up off the wall and dance. It’s not like Mars has been slacking since that year’s 24K Magic, his inescapable, seven-time Grammy-winning third album. In the time since, he held down a residency in Las Vegas, formed a superduo with Anderson .Paak (2021’s champagne-soaked An Evening with Silk Sonic), and notched his belt with a few more megahits, from his 2024 Lady Gaga duet “Die with a Smile” to “APT.” with ROSÉ, Apple Music’s most-streamed song of 2025. Still, dance floors worldwide felt the absence of a new Mars solo album. Nearly a decade after 24K Magic, pop’s preeminent showman returns with an album dedicated to two timeless pleasures: dancing and romance. With the help of a familiar crew of co-writers and producers (Brody Brown, Philip Lawrence, James Fauntleroy, D’Mile), the singer lavishes in the sultry sounds of yesteryear (cha-cha, bossa nova, funk, new jack swing) for songs that go all out in passion and boogie the night away. “Got my lemon-pepper steppers on/Ooh girl, you’re in trouble tonight,” he croons on “Cha Cha Cha,” slipping in a disco breakdown and a sly interpolation of Juvenile’s 2003 hit “Slow Motion.” Mars channels Curtis Mayfield on the groovy “On My Soul,” while “I Just Might” channels Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” for a handclap-heavy ode to flirting on the dance floor. (“It would break my heart, break my heart, break my heart/If I find out you can’t move…”) Lovers, steppers, and wedding DJs, rejoice.