All About Bruno Mars' Parents, Bernadette and Peter Hernandez

Long before he was winning Grammys and selling out stadium tours, Bruno Mars (née Peter Gene Hernandez) was wowing Hawaiian audiences and his parents Bernadette and Peter Hernandez with his perfect pint-sized Elvis Presley impression.

From the age of 2 and a half, the future star began to join his father’s band on stage as little Elvis, and his adorable impression of the King quickly became a crowd favorite.

“He was a ham,” Bruno’s dad Peter Hernandez told Hawaiian magazine Midweek 2014. “As soon as he could walk and express himself, he had to be in the center of everything and wanted to be a part of who he saw on TV.”

That talent and desire, which first brought 6-year-old Bruno an episodic role in 1992. Honeymoon in Vegas as “Little Elvis,” has since helped fill the singer’s shelves with Grammys and landed him center stage at the Super Bowl halftime show — accomplishments that made his parents Peter and Bernadette Hernandez, both musicians, “as proud” as his late mom told Philippine news station ABS-CBN News in 2019. Bernadette sadly died of a brain aneurysm in June 2023.

From their music careers to how they raised their son, here’s everything you need to know about Bruno Mars’ parents Bernadette and Peter Hernandez.

They raised their family in Hawaii

Bruno Mars as a child.

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Bruno was born in Honolulu on October 8, 1985 to mom Bernadette and dad Peter. He is one of six children: he grew up with his brother Eric and sisters Tiara, Tahiti, Presley and Jaime, who also share their parents’ musical inclinations.

Peter grew up in Brooklyn, New York

Bruno Mars’ dad Peter Hernandez.

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Peter, who is Jewish and of Puerto Rican descent, grew up in Brooklyn, New York. “I lived story from the west side,” He said Midweek 2014, “without dancing”. Like his son, he grew up accompanying his own father to performances, where his first musical influences began to take root while listening to the Latin orchestra in which his father played.

He explained to the outlet that he grew up fascinated by doo-wop, rebranding himself as “Dr. Doo-Wop” at age 13, and later formed an 18-piece band in Hawaii called Peter Hernandez and the Love Notes. The band was inducted into the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame in 2014, according to The The Boston Globe.

Bernadette grew up in the Philippines

Bruno’s late mother was born Bernadette San Pedro Bayot in Manila and moved with her family to Hawaii in 1968, according to her obituary in Honolulu Star-Advertiser. There she became the main hula dancer in Al Harrington’s show.

In 2011, Bruno traveled to the Philippines together with his whole family for the first time, where he held a concert in Cebu. The emotional experience was captured in a short film directed by Mike Talampas and Nick Santiago.

“Seeing my son play a concert in the Philippines — I never would have dreamed that would happen. And be sold out — [it’s] unbelievable,” Bernadette said to the cameras. “Oh my God, it’s going to be a great, big party,” she said of the homecoming. “I’m afraid I might like it too much, I might live there!”

After performing to a sold-out crowd, Bruno told the crowd, “I’m so proud and so happy to be Filipino.”

They conveyed their passion for performing

Bruno Mars on stage at the 2021 American Music Awards on November 21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

John Esparza/Getty

The “Talking to the Moon” singer is one of six children, all of whom inherited their parents’ shared passion for music.

Bernadette grew up singing and dancing the hula in Hawaii, while Peter’s love of doo-wop led him to form his own band, the Love Notes. In the 90s, Peter hosted a show at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, where he performed with his band and brought all his children.

“He was an executive producer and he also performed,” Eric said in an interview with Mike Dolbear, who runs an online drumming forum, in 2014. “It was a family operation and me and my sister would run the ticket desk or I would help with the spotlight.”

Their early time in the limelight launched each of the Hernandez siblings into their own musical careers: Eric currently plays drums for his younger brother and his band Silk Sonic, while their four sisters previously co-founded a pop band called The Lylaswhich briefly landed them a WE tv reality show in 2013, according to MTV.

His parents separated when he was young

Bruno Mars as a four-year-old Elvis impersonator, with his mother in August 1990 in Memphis, TN.

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Bernadette and Peter separated when Bruno was 12 years old. After that, their sisters lived with their mom, while Bruno and his brother moved around with their dad, living in unusual and sometimes inhospitable places, including rooftops and their car.

“My dad was the king of finding those little places for us where we never should have stayed,” the “Locked Out of Heaven” singer recalled during a 2016 episode. 60 minutes, in which he brought cameras to one such location: a building on the grounds of an abandoned bird zoo where his father once worked. Now in ruins, the building had no roof and was overgrown with tropical plants.

“It had no plants growing inside [at the time]”, said Bruno to the cameras. “I don’t know what happened to the roof. But the bed would be right there in the middle,” he explained and added that the three of them shared a bed.

Despite their humble abode, Bruno said he has only positive memories from that period, sharing that his close relationship with his family made all their financial difficulties easier to deal with. “We had each other and it never felt like the end of the world,” he said.

Bernadette died suddenly in 2013

Bruno Mars’ mom Bernadette San Pedro Bayot.

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Bruno’s mom died suddenly of a brain aneurysm on June 1, 2013, at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu, according to BBC. She was 55 years old.

In 2017, the “Just the Way You Are” singer opened up Latina magazine about how her death broke his heart and the ways he tries to keep her close.

“My life has changed,” he told the newspaper, adding that he would give up music if it meant he could see her again. “She’s more than my music. If I could trade music to bring her back, I would,” he said, explaining that her memory is a motivating force for him. “I always hear her say, ‘Keep it up and keep it up.’ ‘ ”

He then explained that Bernadette taught him what love was, saying, “When it’s gone, a little more than half of your heart goes with it.”

The singer added: “It’s something you can’t imagine – the pain and the things you keep going back to: ‘I wish I had done this or said this’. You just have to see life differently. It shows you the real importance of life in this world apart from family and your loved ones.”

Bruno dedicated the Grammy Award to his mom

Bruno Mars speaks onstage during the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards on January 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.

Kevin Winter/WireImage

When Bruno was announced as the winner of Best Pop Vocal Album for An unorthodox jukebox at the 2014 Grammys, he took the stage to thank those closest to him — ending with a special, heartfelt tribute to his late mother.

“I want to dedicate this award to my mother,” he said. “Mom, I know you’re watching,” he said. “I hope you’re smiling. I love you.”

Peter had a profound influence on Bruno’s musical and aesthetic style

Bruno Mars and his father Peter Hernandez at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards on August 25, 2013.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Bruno credits his father with inspiring his brand of “Uptown Funk,” from wearing rings on his fingers to driving a Cadillac.

“My whole sense of rhythm is because my dad taught me bongos as a kid,” he said Latina magazine in 2017, in an interview in which he said he was proud of his Puerto Rican heritage, according to Scrambled. “He’s an old-school musician, so that’s where the pinky rings, the patent leather shoes, the suits and the pompadour come from. It all comes from watching my father.”

His dad was doing something different at the time, he explained, and Bruno is proud to be able to emulate him now. “No one had a Cadillac in Hawaii. But my dad would show up in some Caddy that looked like a boat and was wearing some silk shirt, and we’d run to the car as fast as possible. And here I am wearing a gold medal, driving a Cadillac.”

Peter ran the Elvis Presley museum in Hawaii

A longtime fan and collector, Peter eventually amassed such an extraordinary collection of Elvis records and films that he ran a museum dedicated to the King in Waikiki, according to Midweek.

The job was quite fitting, since his affinity for Elvis was what drew him to Hawaii in the first place — he fell so in love with the islands Blue Hawaii that he decided to pick up and move there at the age of 25.

His fascination with Elvis passed on to Bruno, who would stay up late memorizing dance moves he saw the “Jailhouse Rock” icon perform on TV. “At barely 3 years old, Bruno knew how to rewind video tapes,” said Peter Midweek.

Peter is incredibly proud of his children

Bruno Mars and his father Peter Hernandez at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards on August 25, 2013.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Peter shared how much he admired his children’s achievements.

“I am the proudest man in the world of Bruno Mars and his brother and sister,” he told za Midweekadding that he is grateful to all the people who “helped [Bruno] to get to where he is now.”

He attributes part of Bruno’s success to the loving and supportive environment in which the singer grew up, saying Midweek, “Bruno is the product of a lot of love from his entire family.” He continued: “No woman could ever love Bruno as much as his late mother loved him, and no man could ever love Bruno as much as I love him.”

Peter added: “I’m excited for him, for his sisters, for his brother. I’m so excited that I hope to be blessed with as much time as possible to see how far they go into space.”

In addition to frequently praising his son, Peter stood by Bruno’s side at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards in his hometown of Brooklyn, where the singer took home four awards.

Bernadette was close to her son and proud of him

Bruno Mars and his mother Bernadette San Pedro Bayot.

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Bernadette opened up about her close relationship with her son in a 2019 interview with Philippine news station ABS-CBN News. “We are very close, a Filipino family,” she told them, adding that she hoped her children would “develop and continue [that closeness] to the next generation.”

She gushed over her son, saying: “Every mother feels that her son is the best, and I’ve always thought that. To hear that from other people telling me that — I’m so proud.”

Bernadette added that she was incredibly proud that Bruno was able to see the Philippines, where she was born. “I wish I could go to every concert, because he travels the world. It’s amazing,” she said, adding, “He’s seen a lot of places that I’ve never seen before, but I’m glad he was able to see where I’m from.”

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Source: HIS Education