Seven-time Grammy nominee joins short list of producer/songwriters like Kanye West, Ne-Yo and Keri Hilson to see solo success.
By Gil Kaufman
Bruno Mars
Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Getty Images
In music, the producer and/or songwriter is usually some anonymous professional who toils away in the studio at all hours crafting the music and words that go into the mouth of the flashy star who then goes on to pick up all of the hardware at the annual awards show.
But sometimes that off-the-radar studio rat has so much material that he/she gets in the studio and earns some shine time of their own. Case in point: Bruno Mars. On Wednesday, the 25-year-old Hawaiian native became a Grammy Awards darling when he racked up seven nominations for his debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, as well as his work on songs by other artists, including his production and songwriting on Cee Lo's "F--- You."
While Mars was initially a behind-the-scenes studio maven as one-third of the Smeezingtons production team, cranking out hits for Travie McCoy, Brandy, Sean Kingston, B.o.B, Flo Rida, the Sugababes and K'Naan, thanks to his solo hits "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade," he's now a bona fide star in his own right.
He's certainly not the first producer/songwriter to make that tricky crossover, especially in the world of hip-hop and R&B. Ne-Yo is perhaps the ultimate template for studio-to-stage success. After years as a go-to songwriter for everyone from Rihanna ("Take a Bow"), Beyoncé ("Irreplaceable") and Leona Lewis to Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Enrique Iglesias, Mary J. Blige and Faith Evans, Ne-Yo's solo smashes regularly hit the charts alongside the artists for whom he writes and produces.
Like Kanye West, Diddy and Keri Hilson, Mars has seemingly found a balance between writing and producing hit songs for others and creating some for himself. Then there are producers such as Jermaine Dupri, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, who've produced endless hits for others, but whose solo music careers have been steady, even if they've never quite reached the stratosphere of their collaborators.
One of the most successful contemporary triple threats is Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, who has continued to release albums and tour with his writing/producing partner Chad Hugo under the N.E.R.D. banner while helming and penning dozens of hits for artists including Madonna, Jay-Z, Common, Ludacris, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake.
With his career firing on all cylinders at the moment, after Wednesday night's Grammy nominations announcements, Mars said he's just trying to take it all in at the moment.
"We don't know how it feels yet, because we just got the word ... But the fact [is] that we worked so hard this year. In a little tiny shack studio, we'd have B.o.B in there [writing] 'Nothin' on You' with us, Cee Lo writing 'F--- You' with us. The fact that it's being acknowledged by the Grammys is incredible. It's really making us feel like we did something. We're being acknowledged by the biggest."
What do you think of Bruno Mars' success this year? Tell us in the comments!
Related Videos Related Artists Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1653428/20101202/bruno_mars.jhtml
Rihanna Breaking Benjamin Billy Joel
