Later this year Bruno Mars turns 40. The pop icon has been one of the most successful male singers of his generation, boasting more than 150 million record sales and a plethora of awards.
But although the name ‘Bruno Mars’ is known around the world, it is not the one that he was given at birther. Many fans are surprised to learn that his real name if Peter Gene Hernandez, the Hispanic surname coming from his Puerto Rican-Jewish father.
In an interview, Mars revealed that it was his father who first gave him the nickname.
He explained: “Oh, my dad nicknamed me ‘Bruno’ when I was two years old! You know, I guess I was this chubby kid, and at the time there was this chubby wrestler called Bruno Sammartino! So my name has been Bruno ever since I can remember!”
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“My mom always called me Bruno, my sisters always called me Bruno… In fact, the only place I was ever Peter was in school – because that was my government name! So in that way I guess I grew up like two different people! Which may be why my music is all over the place – I’m just a confused person!”
PopSugar reports that the singer moved away from his birth surname – Hernandez – because he didn’t want to be typecast as a singer exclusively of Latin music. After decided that he wanted to drop the Hernandez, the name ‘Mars’ came to him at random one day.
He explained: “The ‘Mars’ came about through a joke in the studio. One day I was in there messing around and just telling people ‘Hey, I’m outta this world! I’m Bruno Mars!’… And from that it just stuck!”
It certainly did, and it has been with him throughout his career in music. In 2019 he was included in Billboard’s list of Greatest of All Time Artists, along with the Forbes Celebrity 100 and the Time 100. He was also the first artist to surpass 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
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