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Latin roots rediscovered
Bruno Mars draws more heavily from his Latin roots than ever before on The Romantic, his fourth album and first solo LP in a decade. Born Peter Gene Hernandez in Hawaii to a Filipino mother and Puerto Rican father, Mars has so far infused soul, funk and old-school R&B into glossy, love-soaked pop songs. On this project, however, he leans far into his Latin side musically.
Throughout the album he draws on Mexican and Cuban-inspired sounds: boleros, mariachi and salsa. Here are a few highlights and an overview of the album’s Latin influences.
“Risk It All”
Mars opens “The Romantic” with a cinematic thunder of trumpets and delicate string arrangements. This immediately evokes a Mexican bolero – a romantic ballad that originated in Cuba and was popularized by Mexican musicians such as Agustín Lara and later Javier Solís.
The track names a slew of session musicians in the credits: a saxophonist, a whopping six violin players, two violists, a couple of trumpeters, a cellist, and conga player Daniel Rodriguez, who played on Mars’ 2025 New Year’s Eve show in Las Vegas. In the music video for “Risk It All,” Mars makes numerous visual references to Mexican culture – including a full mariachi band and a gold necklace with the Virgen de Guadalupe.
“Cha-Cha-Cha”
On the second track of “The Romantic,” Mars brings gently muted salsa rhythms, carried by Rodriguez’s conga drums, as he invites listeners to dance with him. “Cha Cha Cha” is stylistically broader and cuts across several Latin genres: The song explicitly nods to the Cuban dance rhythm of the same name and incorporates the characteristic cowbell sounds.
Just like on “Risk It All,” there are plenty of trumpet and string moments that give the song a sensual feel. Mars also interpolates lyrics from rapper Juvenile’s “Slow Motion” – proof that he can still effortlessly merge genres of all kinds.
“Something Serious”
This funky track is reminiscent of well-known Chicano-inspired songs like War’s “Lowrider” and Tito Puente’s “Oye Cómo Va,” which was covered by Santana in 1970. Like “Cha Cha Cha,” this Mars song also has roots in Cuban and Puerto Rican music: Puente, a Nuyorican songwriter and Latin music legend, wrote “Oye Cómo Va” in 1962 as a classic cha-cha-chá. The cowbells are used again, but this time combined with lively guitar riffs and trombone outbursts – the latter courtesy of Silk Sonic’s Kameron Whalum – and “Something Serious” delivers an exuberant party atmosphere.
