Bruno Mars has had quite a life so far, from being an Elvis Presley impersonator in Hawaii at the age of 3 to traveling the world at 35 as one of the top singers in the world. He’s had several notable life events in between as well. What about education? Did Bruno Mars go to college?
Bruno Mars moved to Los Angeles to pursue music, shortly after graduating from high school, and thus did not attend college. In hindsight, it looks like he made the right choice after becoming one of the biggest acts around in the past decade.
When Mars was still in high school, his sister played his demo for the head of talent scouting at Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment. After hearing the demo, Bruno was summoned to Los Angeles, so he flew out after his high school graduation.
Not So Big Break Turned Into a Big Break
In 2004 Bruno Mars, who was still going by Bruno Hernandez, signed with Motown Records, an accomplishment for any budding musician. However, less than a year later he was dropped from the label as they felt he didn’t quite fit in with what they were projecting.
It wasn’t all bad though, Mars was introduced to another Motown artist, Philip Lawrence, and the two became good friends. In 2005, with another friend of theirs Avi Levine, they formed a writing and producing team called The Smeezingtons.
The trio wrote and produced songs for several top artists, and Mars sang on two of them. Those songs launched him into what he has become today. The Smeezingtons stuck together for years after Mars hit it big, responsible for much of the content on Bruno’s first two albums. The trio decided to disband in 2015 so that they could each focus on their own thing. Though Lawrence still toured with Mars for another three years after that.
Mars hired the writing/producing team The Stereotypes to work with he and Lawrence on coming up with his 2016 release 24K Magic.
A Different Kind of Education
While Bruno Mars may not have gone to college, or gotten good grades in high school, he did manage to get an education of ups and downs in his life up to now. He’s been rejected by one of top record companies, lived out of his car in the slums, written song fantastic songs for himself and other top artists, been arrested for cocaine possession, played the Super Bowl Halftime Show, played the Super Bowl Halftime Show again, and continues on an amazing journey.
It’s almost nice to see that not everything is roses, and that top talent celebrities go through some of the same ups and downs we do. Though he doesn’t like to talk about it, as it hits so close to home, but Mars was also faced with insecurities in his relationship.
His song “When I Was Your Man” was written for his girlfriend at a time he was afraid she was going to leave him. Thankfully for Mars, unlike his song, real-life proved to be a happy ending.
Done with School but not Education
Sure Bruno Mars doesn’t plan on going back to school and didn’t even enjoy it when he did go, but that doesn’t mean his education is over. He’s already learned a lot from other greats in the music industry, including Babyface Edmonds.
With each experience he has, every song he writes, and award he wins, he will continue his education. It’s been said that he’s a perfectionist and he won’t stop until he gets the songs just right, to his standards. This is in part due to his hard work ethic, but also because he has continued his education, in music, by listening to those around him and taking their advice to benign better and doing better.