‘It’s good music, not a guilty pleasure’: how Bruno Mars embraced cheese to become pop’s most popular star

He gets more streams than Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny, thanks to a shamelessly corny and cannily timeless style. Close collaborators and industry experts explain his secret

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!”