"I picked up the acoustic guitar and noodled around, and Bruno was freestyling and singing along. That started the whole idea, and we were like, 'OK, this is where we go'": Why Bruno Mars' new single Risk It All could have ended up sounding very different

When Anderson .Paak called Bruno Mars a hit-making ‘cheat code’, he wasn’t kidding. It seems like pretty much every song that Mars releases these days goes on to become a smash, and Risk It All, his latest single, is no exception.

Lifted from Mars’ new album, The Romantic, Risk It All is a soul-bearing bolero led by acoustic guitar, trumpets and strings. However, as co-songwriter/producer D’Mile has been explaining to Billboard, this isn’t the arrangement that they initially had in mind.

"[We] just always just try a bunch of different ways to do it, until we land on something that just feels great to us," he says. "There was some funky versions, and one that felt like how God Was Showing Off [another song on The Romantic] ended up feeling like.”

Sensing that it wasn’t working, though, Mars made a suggestion: “He was like, 'I think the biggest mistake we're making with that is that maybe it has to be a slow song,'” D’Mile recalls. “Most of the other versions were more up-tempo. And because of the lines that he was saying, 'Say you want the moon, watch me learn to fly,' maybe it shouldn't be fun. It should be more romantic."

It was this realisation that unlocked Risk It All’s potential. "I picked up the acoustic guitar and noodled around, and Bruno was freestyling and singing along,” says D’Mile. “That started the whole idea, and we were like, 'OK, this is where we go.'"

Mars really leaned into the Latin American feel not only with the instrumentation but also the song’s video, which has him being backed by Mariachi Los Criollos de Guadalajara. The original brief was just to pretend to play along, but the band ended up learning it properly to add to the authenticity.

Risk It All debuted at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, fully justifying the decision to slow the pace down.

"I was very much excited about that version more than any other version that we did," says D’Mile. "I don't think I've heard [Mars] do anything quite like that, and I just remember telling him, 'This one is great, because it's different for you.'"

Bruno Mars - Risk It All [Official Music Video] - YouTube

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