Bruno Mars, the popular musician, is widely known by his stage name, but many are only just discovering the reason behind it.
If you spent your formative years in the 2000s, you likely recall dancing around your room with your speakers playing hits from the “Now That’s What I Call Music” CDs, belting out songs like ‘Just The Way You Are’ until summoned for dinner. For those born after the 2000s, it’s worth delving into this iconic musical era.
While you may have been singing into a hairbrush and decorating your room with posters of Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, and the Backstreet Boys, you might not have realized you never knew Bruno’s real name.
Mars was born as Peter Gene Hernández in October 1986 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Early in his career, he opted for a stage name.
After graduating high school at 17, Mars moved to Los Angeles and changed his name. But what’s the story behind “Bruno” and “Mars”?
He explained to Blues and Soul: “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 (Italian) wrestler called Bruno Sammartino! So my name has been Bruno ever since I can remember!
“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!..”
As for “Mars,” it wasn’t merely his father’s childhood nickname that led him to ditch the name Hernández.
Bruno revealed he didn’t want to be pigeonholed by the industry due to his surname. According to Popsugar, he anticipated people saying, “Your last name’s Hernandez, maybe you should do this Latin music, this Spanish music . . . Enrique’s so hot right now.”
He added: “And then 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!”
The revelation sparked reactions on social media.
One Twitter user remarked, “Interesting!”
Another commented humorously, “He has a nice name what’s he doing on Mars… hahahh.”
A third user expressed surprise, “Are u f**king kidding me bruno mars’ real name is peter?”
In response to those surprised by this fact, another simply wrote, “Your clearly not a day one fan lmaooo.”
Indeed.