While many applauded Bruno Mars for rocking the Super Bowl stage sans any over-the-top spectacle and just letting his killer vocals shine, the 28-year-old singer still received a fair amount of backlash after his performance at the big game.
The "Locked Out of Heaven" crooner addressed the criticism during his appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, airing today, Feb. 10, where he gave an inspirational speech to the audience about pursuing your dreams after slamming critics who claimed he didn't have enough star power for the Super Bowl stage.
"How long did you rehearse for that?" Ellen asked the Grammy-award winning performer.
"Months," he replied. "As soon as we got the call I was thinking about ideas and, you know, how are going to pull this off? It's the biggest stage on Earth."
The funnygal then asks the pop star if there was ever a moment when he questioned performing at such a massive event, following in the famous footsteps of iconic stars such as Beyoncé, Madonna and U2.
"No, like how do you say no? Nah, nope I'm good," he says with a laugh. "It was, I know it was early; it's very early in my career. I've only got two albums, so I don't have the legacy or anything like that, but you don't know you know? Tomorrow's not promised, Ellen, so I had to go for it."
Sounds like the right attitude—although Ellen also addressed some of the unfortunate backlash.
"Yes, but you know, you may not have more than two albums, but you write hit after hit after hit," she said, complimenting the accomplished performer. "Every song that you write everyone knows your music; everyone sings along to your songs, you have beautiful songs. And what I could not believe, I didn't talk about this with you backstage, but it's hurtful because there were people that were saying and I know you listen to some of this which you should never listen to it, but the New York Times wrote an article saying that."
"What they say?" Bruno interjected.
"You know, you know what they said, but they basically didn't think he was a star," the talk show host explained. "They said he wasn't a star because he wasn't in the tabloids and he doesn't have a fragrance...He's not ready and it's too big for him and he couldn't do it and he pulled it off I think beyond what anybody…" Ellen said before Bruno fires back at the haters.
"I did. I did hear that and I think that was by far the most disgusting thing I think I've heard. Not because it was taking a shot at me, but I was thinking about aspiring young musicians who want to do this and even hearing the thought you need a fragrance or something like that is just is, you know what I would like to make a little speech and talk to them about this. Can I? Can I do that?" he asked before making a heartfelt speech.
"Listen. Any young, aspiring musicians out there, if music is what you want to do, if music is what you love and your passion. It doesn't take a fragrance, it's not about the tabloids, it's about you putting in the work, practicing every day, practicing your vocals, practicing your instrument, practicing songwriting," he said. "Hopefully one day you write the song the whole world wants to get down to and I promise you, I promise you one day you're going to have your moment to shine and you're going to have a lot of people saying that you can't do it and you're not good enough. But I promise you, if you go out there and sing and you put your heart and soul into it and you follow your dream, one day you're going to be sitting next to Ellen DeGeneres, talking about how you broke records and rocked the Super Bowl. Stand up America!"
Cue the Rocky anthem as a beaming Bruno Mars rushed the audience.