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Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century: No. 20 — Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars is our No. 20 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century for how he's consistently delivered top-level pop hits and performances for 15 years.
By then, Mars had cracked the code of his personal twist on pop songwriting in collaboration with Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine, collectively known as The Smeezingtons: explorations of love and pain rooted in grand, sweeping metaphors and live instrumentation steeped in cross-genre ‘80s influences. Positioned as the lead single from B.o.B.’s — then a buzzy Blog Era emcee – major label debut LP, “Nothin’ on You” still stands an era-defining rap&B love ballad, and its success foretold the hip-hop collaboration template Mars would return to throughout his navigation of Top 40’s zenith. His debut LP was the kind of smash album that spun gold out of deep cuts: Though they weren’t officially promoted as U.S. radio singles, you’d be hard pressed to find an American over the age of 15 who doesn’t know “Runaway Baby,” “Count on Me” or “Marry You.” Even “Talking to the Moon” got an unexpected TikTok-led resurgence in 2021.
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