No tour, no album, no problem: How Bruno Mars quietly became 2025’s most unexpected pop star

An emotional Lady Gaga clutches her Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance as she thanks her co-performer, Bruno Mars, before anyone else. With her hair dyed jet black and her eyebrows bleached, she’s already abandoned the Western aesthetic stylings of their newly award-winning “Die With a Smile” collaboration in favor of a new era — but her adoration of him remains strong.

“I don’t know music without Bruno,” she says. Mars meekly looks down, obscuring a grin as his sunglasses hide his eyes. That was February 2025, and as of August, their duet has remained among the top 15 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 52 weeks in a row, standing the test of time despite surges of popularity for other genres.

We might not know music without Bruno, either.

According to data from Luminate, “Die With a Smile” is the most-streamed song globally for the first half of the year. No. 2 is “APT.,” Mars’s hit with K-pop artist Rosé. For anyone who’s left their Spotify on autoplay this year, that might not be surprising, but Mars isn’t promoting an album or even on tour. He’s one of the biggest pop stars of 2025, becoming the first artist to surpass 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify in January, but he’s not acting like it. He’s just quietly releasing bangers and performing sporadically at a Las Vegas casino.

Nothin’ on you

Mars is so widely loved and listened to, he doesn’t have to promote his work with the intensity of other pop stars with flashy release cycles and high-octane tour performances. That said, his fans, who are called “Hooligans” in honor of his 2010 album Doo-Wops and Hooligans, would love it if he’d share a little bit more.

Though they appreciate Mars’s shout-outs, some Hooligans’s patience is wearing thin. His Vegas residency tickets are extremely expensive and follow the same setlist he’s been using for nearly a decade. They felt like he only engages with fans to sell them things. If that doesn’t change in the new era, some fans say they may move on.

His songs might be everywhere, but Hooligans are in a posting drought — especially compared to fandoms for other major artists dominating pop culture right now, like Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter. Yet, for some, that’s just a part of loving the “24K Magic” crooner.

“As fans, we always want more frequent releases because it’s so exciting to get new content from our idols, especially when so much is happening in the industry. Sometimes part of the fan base gets a little frustrated because Bruno goes quiet and we don’t get any news about what he’s working on, so it feels like we’re in the dark,” Herick, a 27-year-old biologist from Brazil who runs an X fan account for Mars, tells Yahoo. “But with time, you get used to it, and when something new finally comes, we’ll enjoy it just as much as we did last year.”

Herick has been a Super Hooligan since 2011, when he first stumbled upon “The Lazy Song.” He says Mars is unique — while onstage, he creates a connection with fans other artists could only hope to emulate.

“You leave a Bruno show with the feeling that your presence there really mattered to him — and there’s no better feeling than seeing your idol giving his all,” Herick says. “He makes a point of learning about our cultures, our language, our traditions — and that’s something very meaningful and representative.”

What sets Mars apart from his fellow pop stars is his intense worldwide reach. After all, that’s why he’s dominating global charts over artists like Billie Eilish or Benson Boone. Júlia Christiny, also from Brazil, tells Yahoo she’s been listening to Mars since “Nothin’ On You” in 2010. She met him two years into her fandom, and before she could speak English well.“All I could say was, ‘I love you,’ then I cried for half an hour,” Christiny, a 27-year-old software tester, tells Yahoo. “I told myself I would learn English so one day I could really talk to him. Twelve years later, I finally met him again … and this time we had a full conversation!”

She showed him her tattoo, a drawing of his nose, which she says he loved. Even if he didn’t, fandom isn’t just about seeking the attention of the artist that people rally around — it’s about the community that forms around the singer. Christiny says she’s met some of her best friends while bonding online over Mars.

“Bruno just isn’t like the others,” Christiny says. “I think he’s the most handsome man alive, but it’s way beyond that. His songs are pure perfection; they touch my soul in ways I can’t even put into words. It feels like his voice runs through my veins.”

Viviana, a 25-year-old dancer and musician from Mexico, first heard Mars’s music in 2012 when her dance teacher played “Runaway Baby.”

“It was instant love,” she tells Yahoo. “Every time something is released and ends up blowing up, it's like the achievement is mine because I'm there supporting it from the first second …Bruno isn't afraid to take his time creating his art; he's such a perfectionist … and it shows when he releases something.”

Just the way you are

Mars might not command a fan army with the notoriety and fervor of Taylor Swift’s Swifties or BTS’s Army, but he loves his Hooligans. His greatest strength is his broad appeal, though. Breanna Walther, president of Suden PR, tells Yahoo that his dominance comes from something other artists struggle to master: “a timeless brand in music, not just a moment.”

“He’s not chasing algorithms; he doesn’t need to constantly post or jump on every social media trend because his songs already live in people’s lives; at weddings, on road trip playlists, in karaoke nights,” she says. “He’s mastered that sweet spot between cross-generational appeal and current relevance.”

“Uptown Funk” or “Marry You” are mainstays on the dance floor at milestone events. They’re relatively clean, instantly recognizable and bring people of all ages to their feet, Walther explains. His newer releases follow a similar model with strong hooks and a distinct sound that isn’t overly reliant on passing trends.

Blake Evans, who owns a wedding entertainment company in Nashville, tells Yahoo he’s certainly played his fair share of Mars songs while curating the soundtrack for a couple’s big day. There are two elements that make a good wedding song, and Mars has both of them down.

The first is popularity. People know Mars’s songs well enough to sing along with them. “When people are celebrating, they want anthems,” Evans says. The second is “danceability” — upbeat, energetic and funky tracks that get people on the floor.

Mars doesn’t just dominate weddings — even when he’s lying low, it still seems like he’s everywhere. Seventeen of his songs have more than one billion streams on Spotify, and even the rare few that aren’t cheerful are still relentlessly catchy. You have to admire his consistency, which is key if staying power is what an artist is after. Megan Balyk, vice president of Jive PR + Digital, tells Yahoo that innovation is overrated from a publicity standpoint.

When Mars did something relatively unexpected with his January 2025 collaboration with rapper Sexyy Red, the raunchy strip club anthem “Fat Juicy & Wet,” he came as close to flopping as he ever has — the song peaked at No. 17 on the Hot 100 then fell off the chart within two months.

The people know what they want from Mars, and it’s more of the same.

“Fans now know what to expect from [Mars] … there’s a subtle level of nostalgia tied to many of his songs — and that retro vibe balanced with a fresh and modern take makes his songs a hit that never seems to exhaust his audiences,” Balyk says.

He’s safe and easy to market. It helps that, despite one felony drug arrest in 2011, Mars has mostly managed to avoid controversy. He might not update his social media as much as his pop star peers, but that could be part of his strategy. It makes him seem private and under control.

“Bruno Mars is proof that trust, consistency and likability can be as powerful as reinvention,” Balyk says.

His songs are always in your ears, but never in your face. We might not have a song of summer, but we’ve got a clear frontrunner for artist of the year — even if his hits debuted in 2024.