Bruno Mars is of mixed racial and ethnic heritage. He was born Peter Gene Hernandez in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father is of half Puerto Rican and half Jewish descent (with Jewish roots from Hungary and Ukraine), and his mother is Filipino, having immigrated to Hawaii as a child

. While Bruno Mars is often associated with Black music and culture and has faced questions about his racial identity, he is not considered Black in the traditional sense. His Puerto Rican heritage includes a historically mixed society where people can have African, European, and Indigenous ancestry, but he himself is primarily described as Filipino-American with Puerto Rican and Jewish ancestry

. Mars has spoken about the challenges of being mixed race and how the music industry struggled to categorize him racially. Despite accusations of cultural appropriation, many Black artists have defended him, and he credits Black musicians as major influences on his music

. In summary, Bruno Mars is a mixed-race artist with Filipino, Puerto Rican, and Jewish ancestry, but he is not typically classified as Black