Waikīkī · Los Angeles · Las Vegas · 1990–2026

Bruno Mars

From the world’s youngest Elvis impersonator to his own street on the Strip

Bruno Mars performing in Atlanta in 2013 — Atlanta · 2013

Bruno Mars performing at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2016 — MTV EMAs · 2016

He learned to perform by copying: Elvis at four in his father’s Waikīkī revue, Michael Jackson for $75 a show at high school. So his places are learned the same way. Do the act, and one opens.

Photographs: Chrizta T. 2010, CC BY 2.0; Blancatarrago 2013, CC BY-SA 3.0; ItsRomyLee ASMR 2016, CC BY 3.0. The shirt and its print are ours, not his.

The act · ten routines · ten places

Do the act.

His uncle, an Elvis impersonator, had him singing Presley and Michael Jackson songs from the age of three. With a group called the School Boys he opened for his father’s new band, and he did Michael Jackson impressions for $75 a show.

Watch a routine, then do it back. Each one you copy opens one of his places, in the order of his story. The moves are ours; nothing is timed, and you can skip any routine.

Routine 1 · Early 1990s · Little Elvis

Routine 1 of 10. Press Watch the routine, then do it back with the moves. 0/10 places open.

Bruno Mars’s band the Hooligans on stage in Bogotá in 2017 — The Hooligans, his band, on the 24K Magic World Tour in Bogotá, 5 December 2017. Pipovirguez10 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Before the first routine

His band, the Hooligans

Copy the first routine to open the Sheraton Waikiki, where it started. The places stay open below, in the guide, either way.

Sources

Waikiki's hotels lit up at night along the beach — Waikiki Beach at night, December 2015. incidencematrix · CC BY 2.0

Waikīkī · the early 1990s

Little Elvis,
Esprit Lounge.

He was born Peter Gene Hernandez in Honolulu in 1985 and grew up in Waikīkī. His father called him Bruno at two, after the wrestler Bruno Sammartino.

From the age of four he performed five days a week with his family’s band, the Love Notes, including at the Sheraton Waikiki. The Love Notes, his father’s doo-wop revival group, were booked in the Sheraton’s Esprit Lounge. One Halloween his mother made him an Elvis costume, he drew a crowd in Waikīkī, and the local TV show Hawaiian Moving Company asked to film him at the Sheraton.

He was billed as the world’s youngest Elvis impersonator, and the Love Notes headlined the Esprit for seven years in the early 1990s.

The curved tower of the Sheraton Waikiki behind the beach — The Sheraton Waikiki from Waikiki Beach, January 2025. Coolcaesar · CC BY 4.0

A working beach hotel on Kalākaua Avenue. Walk the beach in front of it, or stay.

Sources

Marriott

Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort

Waikīkī, Honolulu · See the site

The beachfront tower on Kalākaua Avenue where the Love Notes played the Esprit Lounge and Little Elvis was filmed. Check rates on Marriott’s page.

See rooms

Hālawa · 1990

Aloha Stadium

In 1990 he sang at the halftime show of the Aloha Bowl, the year the paper MidWeek ran him as Little Elvis. The Aloha Bowl was played here from 1982 to 2000.

The stadium stopped admitting fans in December 2020. Demolition began in December 2025, and a new stadium is planned on the same site for 2029.

A demolition and building site by Kamehameha Highway at Hālawa. See it from Salt Lake Boulevard; there is nothing to go into.

Sources

Makiki · until 2003

Roosevelt High

There he directed a school play, choreographed pep rallies and started a Love Notes spin-off with three classmates. With a group called the School Boys he opened for his father’s new band, and he did Michael Jackson impressions for $75 a show.

He moved to Los Angeles in 2003, shortly after graduating. Motown signed him in 2004 and dropped him within a year.

A working public high school: see it from the street and don’t go in.

Sources

Ward Avenue · 2010 and 2014

Blaisdell Arena

In 2010 he came home to a sold-out show at Blaisdell Arena. In 2014 he sold it out three more times.

At 13, in an interview for Hawaii Moving Company, he said his goal was to become a famous entertainer. His father, Pete Hernandez, had led the Love Notes as an 18-piece doo-wop group.

Honolulu’s municipal arena on Ward Avenue. See it from the street, and check the Blaisdell Center’s listings before planning a show.

Sources

Viator · Ad / affiliate

Waikīkī walks

Honolulu

Live marketplace results for walking tours of Waikīkī, along Kalākaua Avenue past the Sheraton. Check each itinerary.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

Century City · November 2014

New York,
in Los Angeles.

The Uptown Funk video was shot on the “New York Street” backlot of the 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles, not in New York.

Mars and Cameron Duddy directed it, and it came out on 17 November 2014. In it he and Mark Ronson have their hair set in curlers at a salon and their shoes shined, and he shouts for his limousine.

The song spent fourteen weeks at number one in the US and seven in the UK.

A working studio lot behind a gate: see the entrance from Pico Boulevard. There is no public access to the backlot.

Sources

The Fox studio lot gate on Pico Boulevard — The Fox studio entrance on Pico Boulevard, Century City, August 2014, three months before the Uptown Funk video. Coolcaesar · CC BY-SA 4.0

South Memphis · 2014

Royal Studios

A 2015 tribute in the Congressional Record names Royal as a recording home of Uptown Funk and recognises Mars, Ronson and the studio’s team.

The drums were first recorded at Mars’s studio in Los Angeles and reworked in Memphis; the horns were cut at Daptone in Brooklyn and the track finished in London.

Royal opened in 1956 in a building that began as a cinema, and Willie Mitchell’s family still runs it.

A working studio, not a museum: see it from the street, and don’t knock. Not mapped here.

Sources

Bruno Mars in a hat performing in Houston in 2010 — Bruno Mars at Warehouse Live, Houston, 24 November 2010, on his first headline run. Brothers Le · CC BY 2.0

Two Super Bowls · 2014 and 2016

Two halves.

Super Bowl XLVIII, MetLife Stadium, 2 February 2014.

MetLife Stadium

115.3 million viewers

On 2 February 2014 he headlined the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show here. He had been announced the previous September.

It opened with a children’s choir and then a drum solo, on a kit made to honour his late mother. The Red Hot Chili Peppers joined him, and LED ski hats handed to the crowd turned the stands into a screen.

He finished at midfield in front of fireworks, dedicating the last song to the US armed forces. Fox counted 115.3 million viewers, the biggest halftime audience until then and more than watched the game.

Home of the Giants and the Jets in the Meadowlands: go to a game or a concert.

Sources

Levi’s Stadium

115.5 million viewers

Two years later, on 7 February 2016, he was back at halftime for Super Bowl 50, as Coldplay’s guest.

He did Uptown Funk with Mark Ronson and dancers dressed in Michael Jackson styles, then joined Beyoncé, and all three acts closed the show together.

The 49ers’ stadium: see it from the street, or go to a game.

Sources

The Apollo Theater's marquee on 125th Street at night — The Apollo Theater on 125th Street, Harlem, September 2015. Karl Thomas Moore · CC BY-SA 4.0

Harlem · 2017

On the marquee.

It cut the show inside with Harlem’s streets, and traffic on 125th Street was stopped so he could perform 24K Magic on the marquee.

Bruno Mars: 24K Magic Live at the Apollo aired on CBS on 29 November 2017. About 5.36 million watched it the first time.

A working theatre on 125th Street: book a historic tour or a show.

Sources

Apollo Theater

Apollo historic tour

Harlem, New York · See the site

Behind the scenes at the Apollo, 60 to 75 minutes. Tours are not daily, so check the dates first.

Book a tour

Las Vegas · 30 December 2016 – 31 December 2025

Nine years,
then a street.

His Las Vegas run here began on 30 December 2016 and ended on 31 December 2025, 110 shows in all.

The Park Theater opened on 17 December 2016, and became Dolby Live in October 2021. The theatre holds 5,169 for residency shows.

For December 2024 alone, MGM announced six of his shows, New Year’s Eve among them.

Bruno Mars Drive

In April 2026 MGM Resorts renamed Park Avenue, between Park MGM and T-Mobile Arena, Bruno Mars Drive, with a parade.

On the Strip beside Park MGM. Walk Bruno Mars Drive to T-Mobile Arena, and check Dolby Live’s listings for shows.

Sources

MGM Resorts

Park MGM

Las Vegas Strip · See the site

The hotel next to Dolby Live and Bruno Mars Drive. Check rates on its own site.

See rooms

The Park Theater building on the Las Vegas Strip in 2019 — The Park Theater from the Strip, June 2019, with Park MGM behind it. It became Dolby Live in 2021. Itsbydesign · CC BY-SA 4.0

Where it is now

The act is yours:
9 places to go.

In Honolulu the Sheraton is on Kalākaua Avenue in Waikīkī; Blaisdell Arena and Roosevelt High are a short drive inland, and Aloha Stadium’s site is out at Hālawa. The rest is mainland: Century City and Santa Clara in California, Memphis, East Rutherford and Harlem in the east, and the Strip.

Where it is now

9 places you can visit, from Waikīkī to the Strip. Royal Studios is a working studio with no address used here, so it is named, not mapped.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working beach hotel on Kalākaua Avenue. Walk the beach in front of it, or stay.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A demolition and building site by Kamehameha Highway at Hālawa. See it from Salt Lake Boulevard; there is nothing to go into.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public high school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Honolulu’s municipal arena on Ward Avenue. See it from the street, and check the Blaisdell Center’s listings before planning a show.

The Sheraton Waikiki from Waikiki Beach, January 2025. Coolcaesar · CC BY 4.0
2255 Kalākaua Avenue, Waikīkī, Honolulu
Sheraton Waikiki
He was born Peter Gene Hernandez in Honolulu in 1985 and grew up in Waikīkī. His father called him Bruno at two, after the wrestler Bruno Sammartino.
A working beach hotel on Kalākaua Avenue. Walk the beach in front of it, or stay.
Sources
Aloha Stadium from the air in March 2024, empty and months from demolition. Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0
Hālawa, Honolulu
Aloha Stadium
In 1990 he sang at the halftime show of the Aloha Bowl, the year the paper MidWeek ran him as Little Elvis.
A demolition and building site by Kamehameha Highway at Hālawa. See it from Salt Lake Boulevard; there is nothing to go into.
Sources
President Theodore Roosevelt High School, Honolulu, October 2019. Syced · CC0
Makiki, Honolulu
President Theodore Roosevelt High School
He went to Roosevelt High School in Honolulu.
A working public high school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
Sources
Blaisdell Arena on Ward Avenue, Honolulu, February 2010, the year of his homecoming show. Robert.Allen · CC BY-SA 3.0
777 Ward Avenue, Honolulu
Blaisdell Arena
In 2010 he came home to a sold-out show at Blaisdell Arena.
Honolulu’s municipal arena on Ward Avenue. See it from the street, and check the Blaisdell Center’s listings before planning a show.
Sources

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