Bruno Mars' Latin last name

Bruno Mars, one of America’s biggest pop stars, has admitted to dropping his Latino last name to make it in show business. Peter Hernandez (the real name of Bruno Mars) reveals that in his single “Locked Out of Heaven,” he felt like the music industry was pigeonholing him into a Latin music career due to his given name.

“[Their response would be:] Your last name’s Hernandez, maybe you should do the Latin music, this Spanish music… .Enrique [Iglesias] is so hot right now,” confessed Mars. He ended up adopting his childhood nickname Bruno and switched up his last name to Mars to “avoid being stereotyped,” Mars said in a recent interview with GQ magazine.

Latin last name or not, fans seem to love Bruno; reportedly the Puerto Rican pop star has sold over 40 million singles since 2006 and his latest album “Unorthodox Jukebox”  has now topped Billboard’s Hot 100 for six weeks in a row.