Bruno Mars has addressed the apparent $50 million debt he’s in on his social media.
Mars, who is best known for songs like ‘Locked Out of Heaven’ and ‘The Lazy Song’, has continued his success of late and released a series of hit singles.
One of his biggest recent songs is ‘Die With A Smile’ with Lady Gaga, which has hit the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
He is also featured on Blackpink’s Rose track ‘APT’, which has been in the country’s top ten songs for some time now.
Bruno Mars has released a series of hit songs over his music career (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SelvaRey)
Most recently, Mars – whose real name is Peter Gene Hernandez – has released his NSFW song ‘Fat Juicy & Wet’ with Sexyy Red, and it’s safe to say that the song is the ‘WAP’ of 2025.
I’ll let you Google the lyrics to that one in your own time…
In light of the singer releasing a series of hits of late, Mars has achieved a huge milestone on music streaming service Spotify.
It announced yesterday that on January 27, Mars officially became the first artist to reach 150 million monthly listeners in Spotify history – quite the accolade!
Resharing the post to his Instagram Story, Mars penned: “KEEP STREAMING! I’ll be out of debt in no time.”
But his sentiments are very likely to have been tongue-in-cheek in light of MGM denying that Mars is in debt with the entertainment company.
Bruno Mars addressed his ‘debt’ on socail media (@brunomars/Instagram)
Speaking last year, an MGM spokesperson told UNILAD: “We’re proud of our relationship with Bruno Mars, one of the world’s most thrilling and dynamic performers.
“From his shows at Dolby Live at Park MGM to the new Pinky Ring lounge at Bellagio, Bruno’s brand of entertainment attracts visitors from around the globe.
“MGM and Bruno’s partnership is longstanding and rooted in mutual respect.
“Any speculation otherwise is completely false; he has no debt with MGM. Together, we are excited to continue creating unforgettable experiences for our guests.”
It’s not the first time Mars has joked about the alleged debt, either. Following the success of ‘Die with a Smile’ last year, he also shared a reel on Instagram that joked (via BuzzFeed): “Lady Gaga on her way to get Bruno Mars out of debt.”
There were reports that the award-winning singer was $50 million in debt (Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Almost a decade ago it was revealed that Mars has signed a long-term agreement with MGM Resorts ‘that will see him performing at multiple MGM venues, including Park Theater At Monte Carlo in Las Vegas and The Theater at MGM National Harbor in Maryland’, said Next Level Agency at the time.
It was recently announced that the singer will be performing seven shows at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas later this year.
The dates will run form May 21-31, as well as June 2. Pre-sale tickets go live today (January 29), with general release tickets going live on Friday.
We all know that Miley Cyrus can buy herself flowers… but she may need to buy herself an attorney instead.
That’s because the ‘Wrecking Ball’ has been slapped with a lawsuit over her award-winning song ‘Flowers’ – accused of copying a Bruno Mars tune.
Miley Cyrus carrying a basket of flowers back in 2017 (Matthew McNulty/Getty Images)
Bruno Mars, whose real name is Peter Gene Hernandez, is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which has been filed by Tempo Music Investments, a company that owns a share of the copyright for Mars’ song ‘When I Was Your Man’.
When the 31-year-old Hannah Montana star released the song ‘Flowers’ in January last year, similarities were immediately drawn with Mars’ own hit single.
Cyrus’ inspiration for the song came after her split with Liam Hemsworth, the Australian actor known for his starring role in The Hunger Games as Gale Hawthorne.
The pair married in 2018 but just a year later they filed for divorce.
According to TMZ, who have seen the lawsuit, Tempo Music has alleged that ‘Flowers’ is ‘intentionally copying’ ‘When I Was Your Man’.
The investment company further alleged that the melody, harmony and chorus of Cyrus’ song is ‘substantially similar’ to the verse in Mars’ song.
Fortunately, Bruno Mars isn’t the plaintiff behind the lawsuit against Miley Cyrus (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for NARAS)
As per TMZ, the docs read: “It is undeniable based on the combination and number of similarities between the two recordings that ‘Flowers’ would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man’.”
Now, the company want Cyrus to be banned from performing ‘Flowers’ at her future concerts and hope she will not even be allowed to distribute the record that landed her a Grammy.
While the Rolling Stone, who also obtained a copy of the lawsuit, stated that it read in part: “Any fan of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ knows that Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ did not achieve all of that success on its own.
“‘Flowers’ duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man,’ including the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements, and specific chord progressions.”
Liam Hemsworth and Cyrus pictured just months before their split in 2019 (Presley Ann/WireImage)
To dive into the similarities, the chorus for 38-year-old Mars’ song goes: “I should have bought you flowers, and held your hand.
“Should have gave you all my hours, when I had the chance.
“Take you to every party ’cause all you wanted to do was dance.
“Now my baby’s dancing, but she’s dancing with another man.”
While Cyrus’ lyrics are: “I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand.
“Talk to myself for hours, say things you don’t understand.
“I can take myself dancing, and I can hold my own hand.
“Yeah, I can love me better than you can.”
Mars and Cyrus are yet to speak out on the lawsuit.
It might just seem like a blip in her history, considering she’s managed to bounce back and bigger than ever, but that’s not a small amount of money to lose.
Now, she may be enjoying one of the most successful times in her career, having a number of Grammys under her belt, a Best Original Song Oscar, a nomination for Best Actress for A Star is Born, and a starring role in upcoming movie Joker: Folie à Deux for fans to look forward to.
The 38-year-old – whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – first made a name for herself in 2008 with her album The Fame and the bops have continued nearly 20 years later.
Not only did she manage to get 13 Grammys in total, seven tours and a Super Bowl half-time show, but she’s been hailed as an icon by her loyal fan-base who recognise her amazing talents.
Recently, the singer and Bruno Mars released a collaboration on a cool country beat, which fans think is some of her best work yet.
With plans in the future to continue her music alongside her acting work as she preps for Joker 2, life seems to be going well.
Certainly in the financial aspect, that’s for sure.
The 2010 tour left her $3,000,000 in debt. (Marc Broussely/Redfernso)
But at one stage, she nearly went bust entirely.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Gaga explained how her second tour actually cost her a load of cash.
She said: “I actually went bankrupt after the first extension of The Monster Ball [between 2009 and 2011] and it was funny because I didn’t know!”
She added: “I remember I called everybody and said, ‘Why is everyone saying I have no money? This is ridiculous, I have five No. 1 singles.’
“And they said, ‘Well, you’re $3 million in debt.’”
Yikes.
Don’t worry, she’s sorted her money troubles out now. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
According to that FT article, she managed to work her way out of the debt because of the ‘sheer quality and popularity’ of her musical output.
It must be one of the benefits of being a huge pop superstar going bankrupt because of a world tour.
If you’re good enough, you can probably just go on another world tour – or release a new record – to make a bit of dough.
According to Forbes, as of 2020 she was worth $150 million (£120m), but her music career has never been about the money.
She explained: “The beauty for me about being an artist is that the dream will never die, because I’m not obsessed with material things and don’t care about the money and don’t care about the attention of the public, but only the love of my fans, so for me it’s about how much more devoted, how much better an artist can I become.
“It’s honestly true that money means nothing to me.”
As of 2020 she was worth $150 million. (Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation)
There are still purchases that she has had to make that have meant something to her though, including giving her fans the best show they can possibly hope for.
She said: “The only big things I’ve purchased are my dad’s heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary.
“Other than that, I put everything in the show.”
We won’t ask her to rank those purchases in terms of importance, then.
She recently experienced issues at the Olympics as her mic didn’t pic up her epic vocals, but at this stage – people are just lucky to have seen her in person.
Miley Cyrus may be able to buy herself flowers, but she’s also now had to buy herself an attorney as well.
Cyrus‘ release of Flowers in 2023 acted as a major milestone in her career – from child Disney star Hannah Montana to post-teen ball wrecker before blossoming into her latest phase in the form of album Latest Summer Vacation.
Alas, the widespread success of ‘Flowers’ – streamed more than two billion times on Spotify and seeing Cyrus land two Grammy Awards – was quickly followed by controversy – the accusation the song copied a Bruno Mars hit.
The lawsuit alleges Flowers would ‘not exist’ without having ‘exploited numerous melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements of When I Was Your Man’ including ‘the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements, and specific chord progressions’.
When I Was Your Man was first released in 2013. For context, Mars sings: “I should’ve bought you flowers/And held your hand/Should’ve gave you all my hours/When I had the chance/Take you to every party/’Cause all you wanted to do was dance.”
And Cyrus sings in Flowers: “I can buy myself flowers/Write my name in the sand/Talk to myself for hours/Say things you don’t understand/I can take myself dancing/I can hold my own hand.”
However, on Wednesday (November 20), Cyrus’ legal team filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in California’s Central District Court.
Miles Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ has been accused of copying ‘When I Was Your Man’ (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
Tempo Music Investments owns part of the rights to the song as a result of acquiring the rights to songwriter Philip Lawrence’s catalog.
Cyrus’ lawyers argue the lawsuit should be dismissed because the company and lawsuit it’s filed subsequently only represent one of the four writers who worked on ‘When I Was Your Man’ – the other writers written by Mars, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt – and the Copyright Acts only permits ‘a legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive copyright’ to sue for infringement.
Cyrus’ attorneys also argue while the songs share ‘musical building blocks’ there are ‘striking differences in melody, chords, other musical elements and words’ between the two songs.
The lead singer of a band has spoken out on Taylor Swift being labelled ‘cringe’ after she was spotted singing along to one of his songs.
Being a millennial with creaking knees and a growing sense of general confusion about the world, my tricenarian understanding is that ‘cringe’ is generally a bad term.
For example, the sentence above is probably going to be considered cringe. Meta jokes, so 2010s, they most certainly did NOT understand the assignment.
So Swift being daubed with the label for singing along to The Darkness’ song, ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’, can’t be a good thing.
People took to Twitter after spotting the pair at the US open, with one writing: “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are pure cringe at the US Open, this looks completely forced and unnatural.”
Someone cancel the rest of The Eras Tour, we had a good run but we’re done here.
That is, we would be if the lead singer of The Darkness Justin Hawkins hadn’t responded with a TikTok video embracing the pair singing the song.
In the video he shared that he had gone to see Swift perform and praised the hospitality he was shown.
The pair sang along to ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ at the US Open (Jean Catuffe/GC Images)
The singer described how he was ‘dad of the year’ after the concert, adding: “To make matters even more spectacular Taylor Swift actually sent me a lovely letter which was waiting for me in the VIP section talking about how much she loves the song ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’.
“I was just dad of the year, maybe dad of the century.”
He added: “I woke up this morning and everybody’s forwarded me footage of ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ being played at the US open and Taylor Swift and her partner Travis dancing along to it and really enjoying the music.
“It was a really heartwarming moment for me and my little girl can’t wait to tell her friends at school, so thanks Taylor, thanks Travis!”
