NAME: PETER GENE BAYOT
a.k.a Bruno Mars, Little Elvis, one half of Silk Sonic
Scale of Notoriety:
5/5
Who hasn’t heard of a Bruno Mars song? With over 130 million records sold world wide, 11 Grammies and 3 Guinness world records, Bruno Mars has certainly made his mark in the pop music industry. He’s also one of the few artists (tying with Beyonce and Justin Timberlake) of having the honour of performing for Super Bowl halftime twice!
Scale of Influence:
4/5
Aside from being an insanely talented pop artist, Bruno Mars has contributed a significant amount of time and earnings towards donating and performing for charity events, to help victims recover from natural disasters or ongoing crises. Similarly, through the GRAMMY Camp Scholarship Fund, he is helping to start up the next generation of young American music artists and has likewise used his large platform to boost and give credit to Black American artists who’ve influenced his music, such as Babyface, Teddy Riley, and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.
Target Status: Alive and Uptown Funking around Hollywood Hills!
Background:
Born one of six children in Honolulu, Hawaii, Bruno Mars found his love for music early on in life, growing up listening to everything from Rock and Roll to reggae to hip-hop to R&B. By age four he was already performing in front of huge crowds as a part of his family’s band, “The Love Notes”, doing Elvis impressions. His impressions became so famous in Hawaii that he was even dubbed “Little Elvis”, and later included Michael Jackson impressions as part of his act.
Bruno Mars lived and continued performing in Hawaii up until he graduated high school, and then moved to Los Angeles to develop his music career. His first few years in L.A. were rough, and his struggle to get gigs led him to songwriting. After writing songs for famous artists of the likes of Flo Rida, Travie McCoy and K'Naan, he got his first breakthrough as a featured artist on rapper B.o.B.’s 2010 hit “Nothin’ on You”. When the song ended as No.1 on the Billboard’s Singles chart, Bruno Mars was brought into the spotlight as not only a behind-the-scenes composer but also a pop singer in his own right. Since then, Bruno Mars has made it as one of the best selling artists of all time, producing seven number-one singles so far and earning several awards and nominations to his name. While he’s taken a bit of a break since his last album, he’s recently joined up with Anderson Paak to create the musical duo Silk Sonic, releasing their new single “Leave the Door Open” in March 2021.
Genetic Make-up:
Music is in his blood! Both his parents were performers - his father (half Puerto Rican, half Jewish) was a bandleader and a percussionist, while his mother (Filipina with Spanish Ancestry) was a singer and dancer (specifically, a hula dancer). They even first met during a performance! This musical union gave way to a very musical family, and Bruno Mars and his siblings can all sing and play music and are all talented performers in their own right. In fact, his brother Eric plays drums in Mars’s backup band the Hooligans, while three of his sisters, Tiara, Tahiti, and Presley, as well as their cousin Jaime, make up the all-girl music group The Lylas.
Strengths
Musicality - Bruno Mars lived and breathed music from a young age, a foundation of and growth from which, no doubt, contributes to his success and stage presence now.
Songwriting - While he never thought to turn to songwriting at first, Bruno Mars has a knack of producing and writing hits, and is quite the decorated pop artist.
No-Fuss - All he needs on tour backstage is some wet wipes and a bottle of wine and he’s pretty much good to go!
Weaknesses
“The Lazy Song” - It’s noted to be his least favourite song in his repertoire.
Home-Cooked Food - His favourite food is Chicken Adobo (the national dish of the Philippines), and has been quoted to love eating his abuela’s Spanish Rice - made, among other ingredients, from yellow rice, olives and peppers.
Special Talents: Along with having an impressive vocal range, his musical talent also extends to instruments! He can play the piano/keyboard, the drums, bass and guitar.
Nadya Labiba is an Indonesian-Australian currently in her fourth year of Journalism and Languages and Cultures at University of Technology Sydney. Aside from interning at Captain Bagrat, Nadya is an avid community volunteer and a published contributor at Central News.
Instagram @nadrlabiba
Bevin Liu is an ABC (Australian-born Chinese) in every sense of the word. Thinking that her life was set on a law degree, she is now going into the third year of her undergraduate degree in Journalism and International Studies (Majoring in China). On top of occasionally dropping into Captain Bagrats, she is working as a journalist for a regional newspaper, as the planning editor for Central News and trying to balance it with her new responsibilities as a member of UTS’s Academic Board. She would dabble in her love for animals and strange things through the university’s Cat Society and StartUp Link in her spare time.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bevin-liu/