Bruno Mars — birth name Peter Gene Hernandez — may have come from humble beginnings, but since practically the day he appeared on the music scene, his career has had the trajectory of a rocket ship, with barely a stall along the way.
He is consistently a “Top 10” artist, a frequent collaborator with various musical artists, and a perennial nominee for music’s highest awards. Mars’ first four singles all became top 10 hits — an achievement not seen from a male vocalist in 20 years.
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Mars has also had long and fruitful residencies in Las Vegas, going all the way back to the first one, which began on December 27, 2016.
The seventeenth (!) leg of his Sin City residency will kick off on December 18, 2024, and run through December 31, 2024, at the Dolby Live Theater at Park MGM.
As of April 2024, Mars’ Las Vegas shows have brought in an estimated $114 million.
Related: The top 5 greatest Las Vegas residencies of all time
What Is Bruno Mars’ net worth?
Several sources estimate Bruno Mars’ net worth to be around $175 million as of December 2024. Now that is some 24K magic.
To put this in perspective, Ed Sheeran, another male singer-songwriter and all-around pop icon, is worth about $200 million.
Co-Owners of SelvaRey Rum Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak attend the SelvaRey Pina Colada Party.
What was Mars’ early life like?
Born Oct. 8, 1985, in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu, Bruno Mars grew up in a musical family with five siblings. His father, Peter Hernandez, particularly loved 1950s “doo-wop” music.
The elder Hernandez, a Latin percussionist, and Bruno’s mother, Bernadette, also a talented singer, put on a Las Vegas-style revue in Hawaii. As a two-year-old, his parents nicknamed him “Bruno” because his father thought he resembled the professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino.
Mars attended Roosevelt High School, where he formed a band with friends, wrote songs, and sang backup. He moved to Los Angeles at 17, determined to pursue a musical career.
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How did Mars make his money? His musical career explained
As a child in a musical family, Mars had many opportunities to perform. He liked to imitate Elvis Presley’s and Michael Jackson’s dance moves and got a lot of attention for his stylish interpretations.
In the early 2000s, he started collaborating with Travis McCoy and K’Naan and adopted the stage name Bruno Mars, picking “Mars” because, he said, he was “out of this world.”
Mars signed with Motown Records in 2004, where he met producer and songwriter Philip Lawrence, who had signed to the same label.
Motown dropped Mars after less than a year, but in 2006, he was quickly introduced to executives at Atlantic Records by Lawrence. At Atlantic, in addition to working on his own music, he became a part of the songwriting and record-producing team of Ari Levine and Lawrence, aka the Smeezingtons.
In 2009, his career catapulted to new heights after he co-wrote Flo Rida’s hit song, “Right Round.” A year after that, he collaborated with the rapper B.o.B. on the hit “Nothin’ on You,” and co-wrote Travis McCoy’s “Billionaire.” Both titles were Top 10 hits. Mars was just 24 years old.
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Bruno Mars’ debut album, “Doo Wops & Hooligans,” was released by Atlantic and Elektra Records on Oct. 4, 2010, just shy of his 25th birthday. His debut single from the album, “Just The Way You Are,” peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His other hit single from the same album, “Grenade,” also reached No. 1.
Mars earned seven Grammy nominations and won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Just the Way You Are” at the 53rd Grammy Awards in 2011.
Mars recorded the single “It Will Rain” for the film “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” in 2011.
His second studio album, “Unorthodox Jukebox,” was released in December 2012. It peaked at No. 1 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and the U.K. One of the album’s singles, “Locked Out of Heaven,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for over six weeks in over 20 countries. The album won Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards in 2014.
In February 2014, Bruno Mars was the halftime performer at Super Bowl XLVIII.
His third studio album, “24K Magic,” was released in 2016 and eventually went on to win six Grammys, including Album of the Year in 2018.
Bruno Mars performs onstage during the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards broadcast on March 14, 2021.
Bruno Mars’ collaborations
In addition to “24K Magic,” Mars’ 2016 album featured the U.S. number one single “That’s What I Like” and a remix of “Finesse” featuring Cardi B.
Silk Sonic’s soul and 1970s R&B-inspired album, “An Evening with Silk Sonic” (2021), contained the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single “Leave the Door Open” which received four Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
More recently, his 2024 duets “Die with a Smile” with Lady Gaga and “Apt.” with Rosé peaked at number one on the Billboard Global 200.
As of November 2024, following the duets with Lady Gaga and Rosé, Mars became the first artist to reach over 136.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify (SPOT) .
Bruno Mars’ endorsements & business ventures
In 2013, Mars posted a picture of himself on Twitter (TWTR) (now X) using an e-cigarette to promote NJOY Electronic Cigarette Company. The same year, he earned an estimated $4 million from Pepsi Co. (PEP) , which used his discography for an ad.
In 2014, Mars partnered up with three others to launch Sevaray Rum, a blend of white, Panamanian , and cacao rum.
In addition, via Instagram, TikTok, and his self-titled YouTube channel Mars can earn as much as $1 million a month, according to Hafi, a social media influencer analytics site.
Fast forward to 2021, when Mars, under his designer alter ego, Ricky Regal, released a luxury 1970s-inspired sportswear with Lacoste, entitled Lacoste x Ricky Regal. Mars reportedly has his hand in every aspect of the collection from concept to fittings.
“The Pinky Ring,” Bruno Mars’ bar in the upscale Bellagio hotel, opened on February 12, 2024. During the first two weeks of the bar’s opening, Bruno Mars and The Hooligans performed every night.
Mars also has partnerships with guitar brand Fender, Japanese discount store chain Don Quijote, and western wear company Stetson.
Bruno Mars’ controversies
Following his Grammy wins in 2018, some critics started accusing Mars of “cultural appropriation” of Black music. Mars had a Puerto Rican and Ashkenazi Jewish father and a Filipino mother and was born and raised in Hawaii, but he sings in various rhythm and blues styles that encompass hip-hop, funk, and soul elements, among other styles.
More recently, he was only ancillary to a controversy involving Cardi B, a rapper who collaborated with him on songs “Please Me” and “Finesse.” She was accused of being “vulgar” in a video she posted on Instagram.
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How does Bruno Mars spend his money?
Like most celebrities, Mars’ real estate and automotive portfolio is nothing to scoff at, but he also directs much of his wealth toward various philanthropic ventures. Here’s a closer look:
Real estate
Mars currently lives in a house in Los Angeles that has a garage for 12 cars.
Earlier in his career, Mars owned a $3.1 million property in the Portlock community of Honolulu. He bought the four-bedroom, 4,124-square-foot home from John Browning, heir to the Utah-based firearms company Browning. He sold the home after deciding to relocate permanently to Los Angeles for the second time since he was a teenager. He put the Hawaii house on the market for $3.5 million but dropped it to $2.7 million.
He then purchased a 9,000-square-foot home in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles for $6.5 million. The home sits on two acres of land in the same neighborhood where George Clooney owns a home. It has a wine cellar, a bar, and a wing just for children to hang out in. It also has a sauna, a steam room, an infinity pool, and a garage for 12 cars.
Cars
Mars has spent an estimated $1.8 million collecting cars over the years.
His car collection includes a Rolls-Royce (RLLCF) that cost an estimated $289,000, a Cadillac STS that costs between $72,000 and $92,000, and a Cadillac Allante for about $54,000.
Clothing
He also likes to spend his money on designer brand clothing, particularly Versace, so his clothes can run into the thousands of dollars. He is frequently seen wearing his Versace Medusa gold chain medallion, which sells for $2,000 or so.
Philanthropy
He doesn’t just spend his millions on himself, however. Mars gifted each of his seven band members a $55,000 watch as a “thank you” for their help in his career.
Mars is also reportedly quite generous in a charitable sense. He has partnered with the Hawai’i Community Foundation and the Grammy Foundation to establish a Grammy Camp Scholarship Fund for qualified underserved youth. The singer established the partnership in honor of his mother.
In 2014, Mars donated a reported $100,000 to the orphans of Bantay Bata, who were among the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. He has donated meals through the Salvation Army for people in Hawaii, and through 2021, Mars donated all the profits earned with Selvarey Rum to the Honolulu Community College’s Music & Entertainment Learning Experience program in Hawaii.
In 2024, Mars performed a charity concert, sponsored by Budweiser Brasil, at the Tokio Marine Hall in São Paulo, to help the victims of the 2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods.
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