Bruno Mars joins Smallzy to announce Australian Tour

Bruno Mars. Smallsy. We're back together, baby. Good to see you, brother. It is so good to see you. It feels fitting, because to be here in New York to announce the tour, the first time we met was 2011, 15 years ago. Dare I say we look better today? I feel like we do. Yeah, so I went, I did some digging. I found our very first photo. Don't do it. Do you want to see? Look at us. Look at us, babies. You got to put that up. You got to put that up on the screens. Yeah, so since then, you won 16 Grammys, billions of streams, so many world tours. I haven't done that much, but you know, you're doing all right. You're doing all right. I'm still going. 15 years, man. Where do we even start? I don't know. Do you have a highlight? I don't know. It's definitely, it feels like it was just yesterday. Yeah. I mean, it looks, sorry, for the record, it looks like it was just yesterday, because we have aged like fine wine. Yeah, that's what I'm telling everybody. Put the picture back up. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, no, I found another one. I found another one, because you, like, obviously, notoriously, you don't do that much press, and so I found this one. This is 2014, I think, when you were terrible hair from me. Terrible. But you two, look at you, looking great. That's 2014? Yeah. Wow. What a trip, right? Question is, biggest difference with Bruno Mars from 2011, 2014, to today, in 2026. What do you reckon it is? Probably just a little more comfortable. Yeah. I think these are pictures of when I was trying to navigate how this all works, and I feel like I'm just a little more comfortable now, and I understand what my purpose is. Okay, wow. I like that. You are, like, the charisma, stage presence, performance. It goes without saying, when you came to Australia and you opened that stadium, right, that was, I was like third row. Incredible experience. People have to, I always say, people have to do one thing in their life. If you've never seen a Bruno Mars show, have to see Bruno Mars, because your stage presence is one in a million. That means the world to me. Yeah. Not my interview presence, but when I'm on stage. No, yeah, no, terrible interviews. Terrible interviews. In fact, so terrible, I bring a gift from Australia for you. Can you pass me these? I bought. Let's have it. So, obviously, Australia, I bought you Tim Tams. Of course. Okay, to get you in the mood for the Aussie tour. However, I got them to do a special for you. The Brunos. You see that? Hello. You see that? This is how much Australia, they're for you. They are called, officially, one only, never to be repeated, Tim Tams, renamed the Brunos, in honor of you coming to Australia. You can't beat that, right there. So much, we love you. Thank you, Paul. The romantic tour, you are so confident on stage. Where does it come from? Oh, songs. Yeah. Yeah, I'm in the studio, you know, and I want to feel a certain kind of energy, and I know what it feels like to be on stage, and I know the emotion I want to give. So, I have to do my best to try to put it down through music. Have you ever worn a step counter? This sounds a bit, like, boomery, but, like, you do a lot on stage for two and a half hours. Do you know how much, how many steps you take, how many cows you burn? Because you give 110%. I don't, I should. You should, no, just for, you know. I'll do it on, if you see me in Australia. With a Fitbit on, or something like, yeah. It's because of Smilesy. He's counting his steps. I'll let you know. Well, I don't mean to be rude, but we are, we have been around for a while now, we should be paying attention to our steps. Right, we should, especially if we're eating like this. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. What's the pre-show ritual? Talk me through it. How are you? What are you doing? I got pictures of the Hulk. Yeah? Yeah, and on my mirror. And I have to, like, it's, I have to morph. Yeah. Do you, like, religiously stare into those pictures, or are you? Sometimes, because, you know, backstage does not look like what stage looks like. So sometimes you can get lost and forget that, I gotta, you know. You tell yourself you're worthy, don't you? Yeah, you gotta. You go, I'm Bruno Mars. I am worthy. I gotta get up on stage and, you know, and give it to them. I've talked, obviously, when you come to Australia, people who've seen you know, and I've touched on how just incredible a performer you are, but I saw the Silksonic residency, okay? And you put, everyone put their phones into the pouches. Yeah. Can I say that is the best experience I have had in my life? Thank you. Thank you, and that means a lot to me, because I know how people feel about having their phones, but I feel like there's something special about, I call it removing option C. Okay. Okay? Option A, you're having the greatest time. Option B, you're not. And those are your choices. Okay. Right? Option C is, well, I don't know what to feel, so I'm gonna put my phone on and record. So if you take away option C, Yeah. then you're forced to either have a good time or not. Okay. And that's what I was hoping to do. No, and you, I think you absolutely have nailed it. And for people who don't know, like you would go into your show when you were doing the residency, and people had to put their phones in a bag, because you wanted them to be present and in the moment. Yeah. And you walk away from the show going, that was the best experience of my life. No distractions, just focused, squared in, on stage. That means the world to me, Smoz. Thank you. So anyway, you can't do that at a stadium. You can't do that at a stadium. There's too many pouches. However, may I say to people, like, you know, do maybe film one, because everyone's got their Instagram, right? Film one, but then put it away, because you, from song two, it's like an encore the entire show. There's a magic effect that happens when you're immersed in a concert or experience that everyone is with you. You know, I feel like sometimes when the phones come out, it's like there's a separation. So being able to have these moments and feeling that is what I do it for. Congratulations on the record, obviously, that has come out, The Romantic. It's the name of the tour as well. You don't take your flowers publicly of all of the songs that you have had a hand in writing across your career, because a lot of artists sometimes might lean in and go, oh, so-and-so knows that someone's written that. What do you think is the best song you've ever written? Ooh, I got a soft spot for a few of them. When I Was a Man is a pretty sad song. You know, that one's like, I don't know if I could write something sadder than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I got, you know, Locked Out of Heaven was a hard song for me to figure out and they all feel like that. You know, they're hard to figure out. You've got these like concepts and it's like, I need to make this concept feel like this. Yeah. And that's the hardest part. So each song, I could tell you a horror story about each and every song until we finally, you know. Okay, well, I'm running out of time. So answer this one. What's your favorite to perform? Ooh, I'll tell you this one. My favorite one to perform last night. Yeah. Was Risk It All. Okay, great. Love it. Yeah, Risk It All was the song I enjoyed. The Romantic Tour. Is it a coincidence that you'll be in Australia on Valentine's Day? Nope, it's not a coincidence at all. Okay, what's your love language? I'll give them to you. You can choose. Go for it. Words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, giving gifts, physical touch. I'm just going to say physical touch right now. Yeah, well, you know what? Anyone who's seen you, you physically, you haven't physically touched me, but like on stage, you physically. Where is this going, Smosy? Yeah, no, sorry. Your team is like, wrap this up. And then quickly, finally, I do want to talk about the musical ladies in your life. You've had two big collabs, obviously, in the last 12 months or 24 months. Congratulations on those. But I always note with interest, you choose powerful women to open or support you, and you take them around the world with you. So we saw Ray. You had Dua Lipa back in the day. How do you choose that? Do you look for someone in particular musically to support you? Well, I think these girls are all stars, you know? And I got lucky with them on the— They were ascending, you know? And it was an honor to be able to say, Yeah, Dua Lipa was on tour with me, and Victoria Monáe just left. I got Ray now, you know? And I'm hoping everyone sees the magic in them. Love it. Well, thank you for your time. Thank you. Great to see you. Can we recreate that photo so that we have a more up-to-date? We have to do that. Enjoy your Brunos, a.k.a. Tim Tams. And it's such a pleasure to see you again.