Bruno Mars has always been an innovator and one of music’s most prolific hitmakers, but his most recent achievement goes all the way back to his first-ever Billboard smash.
His breakout 2010 single, “Just the Way You Are,” has reached a new milestone that no other song can boast: it was recently certified 21x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making it the highest-certified song in history.
“Just the Way You Are,” released on July 20, 2010, was the song that introduced much of the world to the Hawaii-native singer-songwriter. As the lead single from Bruno’s debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, it was also his first-ever solo single, after he featured on two previous songs from then-rising rappers (B.O.B.’s “Nothin’ On You” in 2009 and Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire” from March 2010). Like his prior singles, “Just the Way You Are” was produced by The Smeezingtons, a team consisting of Mars and his writing partners Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine.
That production was the key to the song’s success; it topped the Billboard Hot 100 and win the 53rd Annual Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2011. Now, it’s not just a record-breaking hit, it’s the record-breaking hit — an achievement Bruno Mars can take all the way to bank.