Bruno Mars: The Other Side

Wait, Joseph, I can see you in our zoom. By the way, you guys, we do record these as zooms in case you're looking for a little BTS. Joseph, that does not look like your usual apartment.

Where are you or who are you here?

Excuse me? I'm in my penthouse with my versace on the floor. Where else?

Okay, just kidding. I don't have a penthouse and I don't even know whose penthouse this is.

To be honest, Okay, if you need help text me.

Got it.

Now it's time to introduce our next icon.

Let's go baby Cakes.

Over one hundred and thirty million records, soul worldwide.

Fifteen Grammy Awards.

Thirteen Soul Train Awards.

Eleven American Music Awards, eight Number one hits, six.

Diamond certified songs in the United.

States, four brit Awards, three Guinness World Records, two super Bowls.

And one heck of an Artist.

Our new icon Peter Dean at none This junior an icon as Bruno Mars.

Oh yeah, he makes that music you want to either get married to or honeymoon too.

If you know what I'm saying, I think everybody knows what you're saying.

Yeah, sure, because I mean sexy tech.

Okay, I know we got it.

Muchos Movimian does sexy.

I love that song, but enough, we got it. Okay, we got it.

And by the way, there is so much more musically to Bruno Mars than just that, and we are so excited to break it all down for you pop, R and B, funk, soul, disco, reggae, and even a little rock.

He's throwing it all in there like Mayabuela's Morley.

On today's episode, the Rise of Bruno from child Elvis impersonator to homeless in La and all the way to his penthouse. I'm your host, Liliana Oosquez.

And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an.

Icon a weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how today's most famous latinv stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some extra level.

Sit back and get comfortable.

Because we are going in the only way we know how, with buena buenasriesas.

And a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes them still iconic.

Okay, those who is Bruno Mars to you?

Oh well, I wish he was my friend because I feel he knows how to throw a really good party.

He dresses really well, and the boy can move.

Gosh.

I think of movement when I think of Bruno, like I want to dance, I want to have a good time. My life is good, not in my feelings, just like out of my body, ready to party.

That's how I think of Bruno.

Okay, wait, wait, so when was the first time you heard of Bruno?

Probably that video like the Way You Are video, I would say, like that first album.

I mean, it was all over the radio.

And every time I say radio, I think that like our listeners think were like eighty seven years old, and we live in Florida.

Y'all, we're not.

We're young, okay, but but I listened to the radio in my car, like I know y'all listen to Spotify. My old ass listens to the radio, and back in the day, I certainly listened to the radio when that album came out and you couldn't escape it. And I think what I remember most is like that song was on all the station. It was on the hit station, it was on the jazz station, it was on the adult contemporary station like he was all of the demos, what about you.

When I first heard his music, it was The Victoria's Secret Show, or I guess that's when I put him to the music. When I saw him on The Victoria's Secret Show, I started liking his music, and then all of a sudden, he started collabing with people that I knew of.

So that was my entree to Bruno.

You're entree into Bruno.

Now would you consider yourself to be a Bruno Mars fan?

You know, I'm not not a fan, So like I like his music, I could say that if you wanted to go to his concert, I would be like, yeah, that would be fun. But I'm not sure that I have more than four songs on my Spotify.

Okay, well, I love that you said if I wanted to take you to a Bruno Mar's concert, you would come with me. Yeah, I would go with Thank you so much. That's very generous of you and your time.

Lesie Jalo fifty times.

When you play an arena, you can get everyone in the arena, And I'm not talking about the floor, like everyone to stand up and not just like clap and like bounce up and down, but I mean like dance it out and like sweat flying at you from like the row behind you.

Like that is a party.

And Bruno's concerts are like a massive dance party. I don't know how to describe it other than that I have been three times.

Three times.

Wow, so you're a fan.

I'm such a fan again, Like his music is so fun.

I remember I was going through like a very dark time in my life, and I was like, can I tell you all the therapy in the world did not make me feel as good as dancing for like ninety minutes out of bruno Mars concert. It was so therapeutic, And ever since then, I was like, Bruno, he snapped me out of my funk. He took me to like a better place, and I'll forever thank him for that.

And he took you to a funky place. Oh you know what I mean, because you good poppy and funky music.

And Bruno's music, like we described, is so undeniable. But most people think his success was inevitable and that it was just kind.

Of given to him.

Wait, it wasn't, not at all.

But for this story, we need to take you guys.

All the way back to Hana Lulu, Hawaii, where he.

Was born and raised.

Okay, I got it from here.

Go, Joseph go.

Peter Jean Ernandez Junior was born on October eighth, nineteen eighty five, making him Boo boo boo boo boo boo, a Libra's son and a Leo Moon. Oh that Leo Moon is strong ish. His birth time is unknown, so there's a bunch of speculations about his rising, but I don't know, so don't ask me either way. This makes him charming, as fuzz, loyal, and a natural born leader. It also means he's a great collaborator, able to hear people out and make people feel seen and heard.

Excuse me, when am I getting this Walter Mergado treatment like I'm your co host?

Just some respect not happening.

I love what you just said about Bruno.

And one thing I want to add was that he was also raised by his father, Peter gen ed Nandez Senior and his mother Bernadette.

Bernie tell me how they hooked up.

So, Peter is half Puerto Riquano and half Jewish from Brooklyn, and he was playing a show at the Hilton in Waikiki Beach where he met Bernadette.

Get this, she was a hula dancer.

A girl is up there shaking her hula, getting Peter axcited.

Well, Bernadette was shaking it and she had immigrated to Hawaii from the Philippines.

Wait, so Bruno is half Moriqua, half Jewish and Filipino.

That's a lot of.

Has, yes, And that's exactly why Bruno and his sound and his history and kind of everything about him feels so hard to define. So Bernie and his dad had six kids, four daughters and two boys, and one of them, of course, was Brunico. A rolling stone feature on the Singer revealed that his dad, Peter, a doctor do wop at Nandez as they like to call him, dim the lights in the delivery room as his wife was giving birth, So it was almost like a nightclub.

Y'all, I love this man. I don't even know this man.

I love this yet I'm gonna say eye roll uh.

And he was not done. He was playing old.

These book goodies on a boombox listeners. If you're too young to know what a boombox is, please look it up. It's an artifact. Anyway, he was playing oldies on his boombox as Bruno was literally coming into the world.

Literally at this point. What do you think the mom was yelling at this time?

I don't know, but I would have been like, snip snip, motherfucker, snip snip. And the second Daddy Mars saw his beautiful baby boy, he thought he looked a lot like a professional wrestler named Bruno Sammartino, so they nicknamed him Bruno.

As for Mars's.

Musical abilities, his home was filled with music. There was a little bit of everything playing all.

The time, hip hop, reggae, and R and B, most importantly rock and roll, specifically the King of rock himself.

Oh, thank you, thank you very much.

Wait was that supposed to be Elvis or Austin Butler?

Don't be jealous of my talent. Okay.

Bruno's uncle John Valentine was an Elvis Presley impersonator, and we have him to thank for setting tiny Bruno on the path to greatness. Back in twenty eleven, Valentine recalled during an interview witnessing his nephew's budding interest in music when he was just three years old. He happily encouraged young marsh to perform songs on stage, not only as Presley, but also as MJ Michael Jackson.

Okay, but it's chill. I cannot do a Michael Jackson impression.

Honestly, I'm kind of rather you not well sooner.

Bruno gained notoriety in Hawaii for his uncanny musical impersonations.

He was quite literally a little celebrity, and.

He was featured in magazines.

He was even in a Hawaiian tabloid called Midweek as the quot unquote Little Elvis. He made an appearance in the nineteen ninety documentary Viva Elvis, and he was on the Arsenio Hall.

Show at the age of six.

Well.

Bruno went on to perform in the halftime show of the nineteen ninety.

A Low Hubble think of it as a baby super Bowl for college football at Aloha statement.

And if all that wasn't enough, in nineteen ninety two, he even had a cameo in Honeymoon in Vegas with Nick Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Ooh and just like that.

Ooh, I like what you did there, Joseph. There was no denying Bruno's talent. And remember he had all those other siblings, so why not spread the love and start a band.

Like Selena Ilosinos Preston Peace Rena.

From age four and all through grade school, Marsh performed five days a week with his family's band, The Love Notes. Sometimes they were even doing two shows a night.

It's very much the Jackson Five vibes.

But while his siblings were shy about the whole thing, Brune loved the spotlight kind of.

Like just like you.

If you're wondering what they performed, it was pretty much covers of other songs, which meant they were only as popular and successful as any cover.

Band would be.

All I have to say is, how in the world does a baby, because he looks like a baby up there, that tiny have so much stage presence? You know how they say, how some kids just have it and some don't. Ooh, Brunito had it. It was like inevitable that he would become a star. Like anybody watching that, any talent scout, any music executive would watch that and say, I'm putting all my money on that kid right now. It was a family affair from the beginning.

Once a family band, always a family band.

But performing as a child takes a toll on any kid, even when it's talented as Bruno. So his parents started wondering if they were doing the right thing by Bruno when.

He wait, what did he do?

He went himself on stage?

Oh my god, poor guy. If only he had Depends as always.

This episode of becoming an Icon is brought to you by the premier adult diaper on the market, Depends Joseph.

Yeah, Depends is not a sponsor of this podcast.

Not yet big now.

For any parent this would have been a major cause for concern, and it was coupled with the fact that he was so focused on performing that he also wasn't taking school all that seriously.

So they had to step in with some serious discipline.

I tell Santi this, if you don't take a nap, you can't watch Blippy. Bruno's mom said, take a nap, or you won't perform tonight.

Like there's a difference there, right.

His mother was even quoted saying this, he knows he cannot get away with skipping his three hour nap.

Or he will not go on stage. Hold on a second, Hold on a second.

She had a child that took a three hour nap, Like, I'm so jealous right now, Like my baby, we'll sleep for forty two minutes, and I want to throw a party for him. So Bruno not only was he like super talented, he also took three hour naps.

This kid is fucking gold, Okay gold.

I was also just going to say it's probably because he was a performer and like, it just takes so much hole and baby boy, Bruno didn't like missing his shows.

Nope, and all that time on stage impersonating the king of rock and roll and the king of pop served as the foundation for his eventual artistry.

Bruno grew up surrounded by music, and he was determined to learn to play every instrument he could get his hands.

On, and his parents totally indulged him when he was a child. It was clear he was a musical prodigy and the centerpiece of the family band. A friend of their is told Rolling Stone that at the band's peak, Peter had seven cadillacs, and Bruno even had a room as big as an average living room just to house all of his instruments.

But like with all great loves, it had to end.

Joseph, are you going through another breakup?

Lila? I feel like I've been locked out of heaven.

Way didn't bring it back, Cauz.

Sadly, for Bruno, when he was only eleven, his parents divorced and the band broke up. Bruno's four sisters stayed with their mom, while Bruno and his brother stayed with their dad.

His father tried to keep the family afloat with a variety of side hustles, but they all failed. They ended up living in the back of a car, on rooftops, and even in an abandoned bird zoo called Paradise Park, where Bruno's father had worked.

When the zoo closed, Bruno and his family stayed.

For over two years. They lived in a one room building with only one bed. During an interview with sixty Minutes, Bruno explained that it didn't even have a bathroom. If they had to go in the middle of the night, they would have to go to the other side of the park to another building that did.

Because Mio, that's a long way from seven fucking Cadillacs.

It is, but Bruno actually remembers it fondly, sharing with sixty mens. We had each other and it never felt like it was the end of the world. I was shocked when we came across this, like I did not know this part of Bruno's history. And when you see the interview, which by the way, you guys should all go back and watch it, like, I think it just gave me a totally different level of like understanding and just appreciation for who he is and how he was raising how humble he is.

I honestly, itch, I'm speachless, I know.

I think when we like first talked about it, you thought I was lying. You were like, he did not live in a fucking zoo. He lives in a penthouse with versace on the floor.

I thought you meant he owned like a menagerie and there was like animals and shit, I didn't like an abandoned zoo. Also, where were the animals? This is just all too much.

I think we should do an entire special with Bruno where we get to ask him questions about Paradise Park because it's just I've I mean, listen, we hear a lot of coming up stories, right, So many of our icons have had like very humble beginnings. I don't believe any other icon we've researched and done has ever lived in an abandoned zoo. Joseph can't even handle it, y'all. He's like checked out, he's done.

I've done, He's done.

But what I think is so interesting is when you listen to his lyrics and you watch his videos, everything is so flashy. It's like cash and cars and diamonds and twenty four carrot like it's just a very high rolling kind of lifestyle.

So now knowing.

That he was living in the back of cars in a one bedroom zoo without a bathroom, does that change your perception of him at all?

Yeah, I mean it makes it more relatable.

And Bruno didn't miss the material things he had his family, but he did miss the.

Stage, that's right, and that was the one thing he wouldn't give up so easily.

So we already discussed how Bruno literally came into this world.

The boom Box is Back and the soundtrack of Bruno's youth included Jodasy and Keith Sweat, Little Motown, led Zeppelin, and the Beatles.

He lived and breathed these artists.

Bruno was inspired by these varied sounds.

Especially doop, which is a very specific style of rhythm and blues that prioritizes vocals over the instruments.

Like I said, this kid was a musical prodigy.

Now he just needed a new band to perform with. But first he needed to make a discovery about himself.

Soon he was in high school and the lead singer of the Schoolboys. It was actually during this time when he got in trouble for singing the word horny while covering Genuines Pony Wait. He covered Pony in a high school. I don't even know that you were allowed to sing y'all lyrics to pony Wait. Hold on, I gotta look it up. Let's look it up. Just a bachelor looking for a partner, remember this.

Yeah, it was just a horingy thought.

Oh oh, that's in the chorus.

Yes, it was nasty. I need some wada.

I know you do, because you read the lyrics to Pony. Oh my god.

Well, I can understand why the teachers were angry at Bruno. But the girls, that was a different story. They were going crazy over him.

And that's when it clicked for Bruno. That endless charm.

Plus his sex appeal meant he could be more than just an impersonator.

He could do his own thing.

He graduated in two thousand and three, grabbed his diploma and said aloha to Los Angeles. And it was an easy decision, especially after one of his sisters called him up and told Bruno she played his demo for Mike Linn, the head of A and R AKA artist and repertoire at Doctor Dre's Aftermath Entertainment record label.

Yeah, the Doctor Dre, It's the d and I staid out love for the Streets.

So Bruno leaves Hawaii. He's on his way to LA but something was missing that X factor. Listen, he knew Bruno was a good name, but it's not Madonna. It can't stand solo right.

We needed mass. So you're probably wondering how did he get to Mars.

I don't think I could actually explain it if I could in my own words, so I'm just going.

To read you what he said quote. I felt like I didn't have no pizzazz and a lot of girls say I'm out of this world. So I was like, I guess I'm from Mars.

Stop. I can't stop. I can't stop it.

I can't. I call this like swag he's got. The boy has swag.

It's not even confidence because like, okay, a lot of people are confident. I'm confident, Joseph, you're confident, but I'm sorry, I do not have swag like that. This man has so much swag is like off the chart swagger.

I also just have to say the fact that he goes. I felt like I didn't have no pizzazz. The word pizzazz is otherworldly, like if you feel you don't have pizzazz, you just are from Mars, because who says pizzaz?

Clearly Bruno.

But there is something else to his adoption of this name, right. It was also a very specific effort by him to avoid being stereotyped. And you're probably wondering, wait what I know? Let me explain.

The music industry was trying to pigeonhole him as another Latin artist because his last name was Ernandez.

Right, what did he spend their hosts have against the z Z.

I don't know. I got twosies in my name.

I just know that the Morsi's you have the badder bitch you are, so I don't know why they're anti Z, but these executives were even trying to convince Bruno to sing in Spanish. And listen before you get all angry and you go out and tell me that Bruno's denying his Latini that that is not what was happening here. Okay, It's not that he was ashamed of his Puerto Rican roots. It won thousand percent influences him musically, and he is so proud to represent Puerto Rico.

But as we've known from listening to all of our other previous episodes, the music industry doesn't always know what to do with Latino talent.

That was one of the biggest challenges that Bruno faced when he actually got to LA They wanted to put him in a box, just like Shakira, just like Jlo, just like Ricky. He had seen this story before. He was either going to be Puerto Rican or Filipino or Jewish to them like they wanted to put him in one of those boxes. They needed to figure out how

A year after signing with Motown, he.

Had a shot to make it big, but it fell through the cracks.

As fast as he was signed girl, he was dropped.

And to top it off, the culture shock he faced when he got to La was a brutal.

Yeah, La, La Land can be devastating for people when they first get here. And here's what Bruno had to say about his experience moving to La. He said, quote, I'd always been a working musician in Hawaii and never had problems paying rent. And then it's like, now I'm in La, my phone's getting shut off. That's when reality hit. I started DJing. I told this person liked a DJ because I said they could pay me seventy five dollars cash under the table.

I didn't know how to DJ. I lost that job pretty quick.

Our boy was Baroke, but he wasn't a quitter. Daddy Peter was a hustler and taught his boy the art of the game.

Bruno knew he had to give it another shot before calling it quits. At Motown, he met Philip Lawrence, a songwriter and producer Lawrence and Mar had hit it off, and they started writing songs together, along with sound engineer Ari Levine.

Together they founded a production team called the Smeeezing Tins.

Bless you what a name man.

The Smoothing Tens a Goodbye.

During this time, Mars played cover songs around La in a band called sex Panther with his brother Eric, the.

Future soon to be drummer of the Hooligans.

Wait, sex Panther, I need to call my trademark attorney because Bruno owes me some moo lah.

Good luck with that case anyway.

Soon sex Panther was meeting with an A and R guy at Atlantic Records. He was blown away by their talent, but his colleagues they were hashtag not impressed.

It's a Shakira all over again. These moas in charge need to start getting some.

Exactly.

The A and R guy wanted to sign him right then and there, but everyone else thought Bruno needed time to develop himself as an artist.

So they agreed on a middle ground.

The Sumeezingtons were hired to write and produce songs for other artists under Atlantic Records, like.

Bieber Flow, Rita, even Beyonce and jay Z, hell even Kanye.

I know you're probably wondering, Wait, what songs were they, y'all? These were like big fucking hits. Mealving me right, babe, run like a record, baby, right right, right right.

Marge took the l and was mostly in the background, either writing and producing or providing backup vocals for other artists.

That was until two thousand and nine, when he was featured in two songs, Bob's Nothing On You and Travi McCoy's Billionaire.

But I bet y'all didn't even know that Bruno wasn't supposed to be on these songs.

That's right.

Somewhat at the record company thought the hooks Bruno wrote would be better if someone white, blonde and blue eyes, saying them.

Blonde, blue eyed, white people just don't have enough apparently, Yes, I.

Know, give them, give them, give them more things, Please give them the world.

Oh wait, they already own it. Never mind. Mars called this moment the lowest of his career.

He said, even with that song in my back pocket to seal the deal, things like that are coming out of people's mouths.

It made me feel like I wasn't even in the room.

It's clear that people did not know how to promote an artist like Bruno with such a diverse background, or even someone that looked like him.

But he stayed on the tracks and both songs were instant hits.

Everything about him was instantly recognizable, his voice, his signature, Fedora, his boyish good looks as he likes to call them.

Atlantic Records finally realized what they had and signed him to the label.

On July twentieth.

At twenty ten, Mars released Just the Way You Are as the lead single from his debut studio album, Doo Wop and Hooligans.

Okay, just the Way You Are? Did you love or hate the song?

I love, deeply love this song. I feel like when I first heard it, I was like, is anyone ever going to feel that way about me? Like he's really good with the lyrics, he's obsessed with her, but like in a not scary way, like not like not in like a you on Netflix stockery way, just in like a oh I want to be worshiped? Like yeah, it was really sweet and yes, I love that song. And what's crazy is that that song is one of my son's favorite songs, and my son has a little play piano.

He's not as talented as Bruno. Let's be clear. He bangs on the piano.

And so when he sees Bruno playing the piano in the video, he said, piano. So like he just has this real connection to the song. I think it's beautiful.

I love that, But now it brings this question to me.

So he's twenty two months and loves Bruno and you can be old and young. Obviously they were playing in all these, you know, different stations, and it was just kind of like this song.

Why do you think this song worked?

I think it's always a combination with music. I think that a the lyrics are widely acceptable, and what I mean by that is no one is offended by the lyrics. No one has like a bone to pick with these lyrics. Like you said, everybody wants someone to feel this way. So there's a natural kind of like desire for this feeling. So there's that connection to the song. So the lyrics check out. The connection exists, like you want to feel like this, He wants to make you feel like this.

When he's singing to you, you're like, oh, do you feel like that about me?

And I think that his music style just has really wide appeal, Like it's not for boomers, it's not for gen Z, it's not for gen X, it's not for millennials. It just has cross generation appeal.

It does.

But it's funny that you say that, because I feel like he has created this sound, that is, he's pigeonholed himself to this universal sound.

Do you know what I mean? I do?

But I'm I'm gonna like fight you on this because remember this was the lead single off of his debut album, So he's smart, he's been in the game and having this song be the first one to come out because he has then the ability to appeal to the widest, biggest audience.

That's why I think it worked at this time.

As he progresses as an artist, he gets bolder, he takes more risk, by the way, as all artists.

Do you want that?

But to start this album to me felt like that was a great introduction for him to this audience.

Well, I actually have some juice for you.

Give me the juice. Give me the juice.

Originally it was going to be given to Selo Green or Lupe Fiasco, but Brunito said, no, man, you know what this one's mind and.

It reached the top of the US Billboard Hot one hundred, ending the two week reign of Queen Katie Perry's Teenage Dream. You know Bruno had an undeniable hit in his hand because Teenage Dream was like.

Everywhere it still is.

Bruno was a star and he loved it. The fans loved him.

There was money, he got special treatment wherever he went.

The world was finally treating him like the vip he always knew he was.

But all of that can go away with the snap of.

A finger or the snort of a note. Hanni, yup.

Bruno Mars might have had the number one song in the world, but a forthcoming arrest record threatened at all. You couldn't escape the headlines. They were everywhere.

Bruno had the number one song in the country when he was caught with cocaine in Vegas.

Talk about living in the rock star lifestyle.

Bruno paid a two thousand dollars fine, performed community service, and completed a course on drug abuse in exchange for the arrest being erased from his record. When asked about the instan during an interview with GQ magazine, this is what the singer had to say.

You've prepped your whole life, it's all you know how to do. Your kid experiencing life in Sin City, and that was the lesson. It can all be taken away, put you in a weird place, embarrass you.

And this was a real wake up call for him.

With an album underway, Bruno was more determined now than ever not to fuck it all up.

But like they say, all press is good press, and just the way you are continue to perform well despite.

His arrest and do Wop and Hooligans finally arrived. Did you know they gave them six months to.

Work on this.

Everyone on planet Earth and the aliens up in Alaska were like, who is this Bruno Mars?

I want more of that.

So the label called them and said, you know what, let's have this one done quickly instead of six months.

Now you got one chu.

They scrambled to put this album together and while the entire process had felt daunting, but looking back on those weeks, Philip Laurens had this to say, we had no idea what we were doing, and for the most part, we still have no idea. Back then it was just like, holy hell, how are we going to pull this off? But still in the midst of that, we couldn't believe we had a record deal and that we were making songs that were hits.

So it was all this fantasy.

The album itself is a breezy mix of pop, reggae, and.

R and B.

It speaks to Bruno who he is, how he grew up, and the people that surrounded him, especially his father.

The album's divided into two parts, Duop and Hooligans.

Bruno credits his dad, who loved duop, so he wanted to emphasize beautiful melodies and more importantly, the vocals.

As for the Hooligans side, Bruno really likes to party.

We really like to party, and the world clearly likes to party. Because the album went on to sell over fifteen million copies world wide. I mean, like, damn you guys, there's just not that much many albums that can hit these milestones, right.

I think it became such a hit because despite him taking inspiration from so many bands and artists he admired, it still sounded like his own thing.

You're one thousand percent right. It's it's always those moments with artists when you go whoa, what was that? And then you go, wait, who is that like Shakira has the same impact. Right at the time, I felt like it felt so fresh for my ears. And anytime you can capture freshness in music, everything in music and film and art is derivative. It's a different version of something you already know. It's the marriage of two things that

Whenever I think about Bruno Mars, I do think of this very unique sound, right, people don't sound like Bruno Mars, And I think when I first heard it, I just was like, what is all this this?

No?

I knew you were gonna say, noise I do.

Now it's like a melody, you know, But I just feel like I had my brain couldn't process like the sounds that were coming in, and I feel like I just needed a minute to warm up to him.

Yeah, and everyone that was on the Bruno train back then is still on the Bruno train.

Now.

What's really interesting about this particular album is that this has been charting on the Billboard two hundred for a decade.

Did you know that?

No, I actually did not. I'm Shocked. That was a you really heard a shocked noise for me ten years.

And this is not some light record, you guys. This is a hyper exclusive club. I mean, the only other albums that I think Joseph might know that are in this club, and the only ones that are in it period are Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Okay, Bob Marley and The Whaler's Legend, Like I mean iconic,

I mean, I'm.

Speechless for Bruno. I feel like he's got to be speech I mean, that is some elite shit.

How can you even just walk around your days like that? Really?

Okay, sorry, I'm just still recurring on the top two. He's like I Got the pizzaz wow.

I And you know, often we talk about debut albums, and you know, some of them are incredibly well done and they pop off when they launch, but then they kind of go away and they fade into obscurity.

Yeah, that's not what happened with this one.

And it wasn't like anything on the radio at the time. Bruno reached notoriety most people could only dream of.

Everyone wanted a piece of the suave singer songwriter.

Even Twilight Mars released a single called it Will Rain for the Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part one soundtrack.

I can totally believe that was a hit. Team Jacob at BT Dubbs, How.

Did I know you were a Twyhart Beyond a Twilight song, Bruno now had a Grammy win to his name, the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Just the Way You Are. All those years living in Los Angeles trying to break into the music industry left him oft and dejected. He was constantly yearning for home, but he never faltered because he didn't want to return home a failure.

In twenty eleven, during his tour, he did anything but that. When he returned home, he wasn't empty handed.

He had all these hit singles, he had an album, and he had a Grammy win to prove it. His family, alongside a legion of fans, waited for him for a well earned homecoming celebration. On December nineteenth. He performed to a soldout crowd of ten thousand people.

All was good on mars Land.

Now he had the platform to come back with an even bigger album the next time around.

On the next Becoming an.

Icon, Unorthodox Jukebox, twenty four Carrot Magic, Silkthnic, and two Super Bowl halftime shows.

Becoming an Icon is presented by Sono and Iheart's Michael Duda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast