Bruno Mars Served POPSUGAR Shots in Hawaii — and Shared Why His Rum Is "Luxurious"

Bruno Mars is at ease behind a bar — his bar. He's armed with a bottle of premixed shooters, his SelvaRey Rum the star ingredient, while stationed across from an array of fans and press, many who are recording the enviable encounter. Mars makes small talk as he hands out lowball glasses of the shots to the excited first patrons of his SelvaRey Rum pop-up bar at the luxury Fairmont Orchid resort on the Big Island, Hawaii. "Is this your first time in Hawaii?" he posits to one attendee, before making a quip that his on-theme Hawaiian shirt was picked up at the airport.

The shooters go down easy and smooth — thanks, of course, to the award-winning SelvaRey, which launched in 2014 but Mars bought into later. SelvaRey currently has four offerings: white rum, chocolate rum, a coconut rum, and their Owner's Reserve, crafted by the brand's Maestro Ronero (aka master rum maker) Francisco "Don Pancho" Fernandez.

Mars is certainly not the first celebrity to get into the liquor space, but his peers' efforts have largely focused on other types of spirits (tequila, it seems, is the current favorite). Though he demurs, Mars has had a heavy hand in SelvaRey's recent success thanks to some smart branding. There's a fun jingle with his Silk Sonic collaborator Anderson .Paak; a sleek Champagne-like bottle with a cork topper and a gold toucan emblem set into the glass; and, of course, this pop-up bar collaboration.

"What makes SelvaRey great was there without me," Mars tells POPSUGAR in a Q&A. "SelvaRey was already winning awards, and [Fernandez], a legend in the rum world, was making the rum. I loved the idea of elevating all the rum drinks people already knew, and I wanted to be a part of that." Those little tweaks mentioned — the jingle, the toucan — were part of Mars's vision for "tropical luxury." He says, "We focused on making sure everything we did . . . felt like the taste of the rum."

Mars knows a thing or two about tropical. He, of course, hails from the Aloha state — born in Honolulu, on the island of O'ahu. "Hawaii is where it all started for me," he reflects, noting that he was used to seeing his fellow islanders drink rum growing up. Hawaii, he tells POPSUGAR, has "been the inspiration for the things I've done with SelvaRey."

This latest venture then only makes sense. Returning home gives Mars a chance to explore what makes the islands so special — the beaches and the food, he pinpoints. "Every time I come back, even if it's for work, I'm at the beach every chance I get," Mars says. "And for the food, some of my favorite places are in Hawaii. Local food you can't get anywhere else."

His SelvaRey rum bar with Fairmont is oceanfront, with guests able to get the true Mars Hawaii experience of a tropical cocktail — like the Weekend at Bruno's, which pairs SelvaRey white rum with pineapple, passionfruit, and lime — while feeling the sand beneath their toes amid a backdrop of palm trees. The bar has all the touches clearly drawn from Mars's vision: a vintage radio and a tiny hula girl dashboard bobble in one corner, with vibrant yellow umbrellas for drinkers to lounge under. Mars also had a heavy hand in creating the slate of featured drinks — though SelvaRey Global Brand Ambassador Brian Klemm teases that the singer's true go-to is a simple daiquiri — even the ones that hearken to the other, more prominent side of his career (see: the Uptown Punch, crafted with SelvaRey coconut rum, orange, lime, and pomegranate).

The bar, currently planned to be open through the summer, is part of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts' Beyond LIMITS experiences, a series of adventures unique to Fairmont properties around the world. The bar only bolsters an incredible existing list of Fairmont Orchid experiences, not limited to canoe snorkeling trips on-property in Pauoa Bay, hula lessons taught by the resort's director of Hawaiian culture, and, of course, a signature luau. Seeing his contribution to the Beyond LIMITS series in person was, Mars says, "Incredible." The music superstar elaborates, "It's such a great location that perfectly matches what SelvaRey is all about."

It helped, of course, that the bar's May 18 opening was followed by a high-energy party filled out by Mars's friends and business partners, press, and some lucky Fairmont Orchid guests, treated to the night of a lifetime. While a band soundtracked most of the evening, Mars couldn't resist stepping up to the mic and crooning his beloved hits "Treasure" and "Just the Way You Are." He smiled easily while the gathered crowd sang his karaoke-favorite lyrics back to him. Of the evening, Mars says, "The people were amazing, and the cocktails were flowing all night."

Though Mars will only tease to "stay tuned" when asked about any upcoming music, he's happy to elaborate on "why people connect to SelvaRey." It's more than just a celebrity rum brand. "There really is nothing else like SelvaRey out there," Mars explains. "Having a rum that is luxurious and delicious . . . that didn't exist. Rum is this special drink that's associated with all these joyous things, like vacation, summer, and the beach, but until SelvaRey, quality wasn't the priority. We wanted to add a feeling of luxury to those moments. It's opening people's minds to what rum can be."