Bravo, Bruno! Bruno Mars covered Adele’s “All I Ask” during a feels-inducing performance on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge on Wednesday, November 2.
The “24K Magic” singer, 31, delivered a captivating rendition of the power ballad — which is from Adele’s groundbreaking third studio album, 25, — and made it his own with ’90s R&B-inspired instrumentals courtesy of his band, The Hooligans.
After nearly five minutes of belting his heart out, the Hawaiian-born pop star flawlessly riffed through several key changes and ended his set by nailing the final note.
Mars, who cowrote the track with the British songstress, 28, opened up about the musical duo’s creative process during a cover story interview for Rolling Stone’s latest issue.
Though he absolutely loves singing the track’s line “Take me by the hand while we do what lovers do,” Mars admitted he wasn’t always sold on the idea of using the word lover in his lyrics.
“We were aiming for that big diva ballad thing—that’s what I envisioned,” the “Locked Out of Heaven” crooner explained to the music bible. “But ‘lovers’? I don’t know if anybody really says ‘lovers.’ ‘Yeah, we’re lovers.’ ‘This is my lover.’ I was like, ‘Should we rethink that?’”
He continued, “But [Adele] was so gangster about it. She was like, ‘Nope. That’s what it has to be.’ And she was right. It’s this grand word that makes the song bigger because no one says it. Because nobody talks like that, it pops out. It’s not ‘what boyfriends and girlfriends do’ — it’s this over-the-top ‘lovers.’ Sometimes I play it on the piano, and I look forward to singing that part. It’s f–king perfect.”
Watch Mars’ amazing performance of “All I Ask” above.
