Bruno Mars adds yet another milestone to his career with ‘The Romantic’

Bruno Mars pulls off several chart feats he’s never accomplished before. Gorillaz, BLACKPINK and Mitski return to the top 10. And a song popularized by a figure-skating routine makes waves beyond its initial viral moment.

TOP STORY

Bruno Mars is one of the 21st century’s most decorated pop stars, with 16 Grammy wins and 10 chart-topping singles to his name. As of this moment, according to Spotify’s calculations, he’s the most-listened to artist in the world. Still, there are a few milestones he hasn’t reached, in part because he’s only released five albums in his career — and one of those, An Evening With Silk Sonic, was as half of a side project with Anderson .Paak.

Until the release of The Romantic in late February, Mars hadn’t released an album under his own name since 2016. So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the new record posts his best-ever weekly numbers for streaming and vinyl sales — two industries that have expanded considerably in the last decade. But The Romantic‘s chart success this week does include a pair of true milestones: It’s Mars’ first album to debut at No. 1, and this week marks the first time he’s posted a No. 1 album and a No. 1 single simultaneously.

That No. 1 single is “I Just Might,” which debuted at No. 1 two months ago and slid out of the top spot after a couple weeks. This week, buoyed by streaming of The Romantic, it’s back on top — and it’s joined in the top 5 by the album’s lead track, “Risk It All,” which debuts at No. 4. Not surprisingly, all of The Romantic‘s songs land on this week’s Hot 100; there are only nine of them, after all.

Mars hadn’t hit No. 1 on the albums chart since Unorthodox Jukebox in 2013 — giving him a roughly 13-year gap between chart-toppers. That’s nowhere near a record, given that Paul McCartney once waited 36 years between No. 1 albums, but still.

All that said, when it comes to Bruno Mars albums, their success isn’t defined by lofty peaks — lots of albums debut at No. 1, only to fade quickly into oblivion — so much as uncommon longevity. All three of Mars’ solo records prior to The Romantic land on this week’s Billboard 200, and they’ve averaged 412 weeks on the chart. That’s nearly eight years each.

There’s no way of truly knowing, at this early stage, whether The Romantic will match that mark. But, given its solid start, it just might.

TOP ALBUMS

Last week, Megan Moroney‘s Cloud 9 led a pack of four albums that debuted in the top 10. This week, it’s the only one of that quartet remaining in that region of the chart, and it slips from No. 1 to No. 6; the others slide farther, with Hilary Duff‘s luck… or something plummeting from No. 3 all the way to No. 191. Chart longevity is hard, y’all.

This week, another four albums debut in the top 10, led by Bruno Mars at No. 1. The Romantic is likely to stick around a while, but the others face more uncertain futures, with numbers that tilt heavily toward sales. (For an album to stick around on the Billboard 200 for a nice, long run, you really need big streaming numbers.)

At No. 7, the cartoon-avatar’d “band” Gorillaz posts its sixth top 10 album with The Mountain, bolstered by loads of different physical editions on vinyl, cassette, CD and digital download. At No. 8, the K-pop superstars in BLACKPINK debut with DEADLINE; even aided by 13 different CD versions, it lags well behind its predecessor, BORN PINK, which debuted at No. 1 in 2022. (Read more about DEADLINE here.) And at No. 10, Mitski posts her second top 10 album with Nothing’s About to Happen to Me.

All three non-Mars debuts are likely to vacate the top 10 next week, when first-week sales are no longer a factor and Harry Styles‘ new album comes a-stormin’ onto the charts.

TOP SONGS

Bruno Mars’ success aside, the Hot 100 singles chart is looking less lively than its album-driven counterpart. But alongside the usual suspects — Ella Langley‘s “Choosin’ Texas” at No. 2, Olivia Dean‘s “Man I Need” at No. 3 and so on — there’s one top 10 interloper worth noting.

Last week in this space, we took note of a steep chart climb for PinkPantheress‘ “Stateside (feat. Zara Larsson),” which benefited from its placement in a figure-skating routine by U.S. Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu. The song jumped from No. 41 to No. 13 in the immediate aftermath of Liu’s viral performance, but if you thought that was a one-time boomlet — the momentary byproduct of a shared cultural experience — think again.

This week, “Stateside” leaps to No. 7, suggesting momentum that extends well beyond the Olympics. “Stateside” marks PinkPantheress’ second top 10 hit — her collaboration with Ice Spice, “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2,” hit No. 3 in 2023 — while Larsson cracks the top 10 for the first time in her career, after first charting a decade ago.

Liu deserves loads of credit for helping the song surge up the charts. But this week’s Hot 100 demonstrates that, once “Stateside” reached a huge array of new fans, they clearly liked what they heard.