Bruno Mars, from Uptown Funk to Beachside Bartender

Frank Sinatra was so closely associated with whiskey that, when he died, he was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

His daughter, Nancy, famously slipped a minibottle into his blue suit at the funeral held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills in 1998 (along with a pack of Camels and his Zippo lighter!).

In life, as in death, the Rat Packer and most celebrated singer of 20th-century popular song was so closely associated with Jack that he was never onstage without a glass of the Tennessee hooch, poured over three ice cubes. Simple. One of the most enduring relationships between a whiskey and an artist in the long pantheon of fame, all things considered — although Frank was never officially the spokesman for the brand. And certainly never owned any piece of it.

Something that most definitely rushed to mind when 15-time Grammy winner and hip thrust-enabler Bruno Mars surprise-appeared before me behind a bar the other week — complete with signature Aviators, a hammock-ready Hawaiian shirt and even a spiffy lei hanging off him. We were in Hawaii, where Peter Gene Hernandez (his real name) grew up.

Destination: the Big Island. At the sprawling, serotonin-boosting Fairmont Orchid.

The task at hand for the pop star? Going from Uptown Funk to Beachside Bartender. Personally handing out some well-considered cocktails courtesy of his signature rum brand, SelvaRey, which seeks to disrupt the nearly $8-billion rum industry in the U.S. and is just one of the many celeb-led liquor entities of late. A single-estate Panamanian-distilled rum, it arrived in a post-Casamigos world (the tequila brand that George Clooney sold for one billion buckeroos to Diageo back in 2017) and a post-Aviation one (the gin that Ryan Reynolds similarly cashed in on). A world in which everyone from Kendall Jenner to Dwayne Johnson, SJP to Diddy, has made themselves known in the boldface booze stakes.

“We going to put down our phones and have some fun?” Mars teased to our group of 30 or so, all of us holding up our mobiles like daggers. A sentence, indeed, that Sinatra likely never needed to employ in his day.

Mars, who co-owns the spirits company with a trio of entrepreneurs (including Toronto’s own Robert Herzig), is all about the fun, after all. It is part of the persona; an indelible component of the Bruno Operating System. And, no doubt, why Fairmont Orchid invited him to put down a pop-up on the sand: the SelvaRey Rum Bar.

Founder Seth Gold had this to say Forbes not long ago about the fast-rising brand (which comes in white, chocolate, coconut and an Owner’s Reserve): “We started out with an idea of changing people’s perceptions of rum and elevating the category to where it belongs — alongside the best whiskeys, vodkas, tequilas and gins.”

Connecting with Mars later, I asked him what it meant to be doing this pop-up in America’s 50th state and what hold it has on him still. “Hawaii is beautiful. There are so many things that make it special, but for me it was always about the beaches. Growing up, that was where I’d love to spend time,” he gushed.

Does he have a favourite Hawaiian expression, what with his distinct history and culture? He sure does. “If can, can. If no can, no can,” he said.

Turning back to his rum, Mars mentioned that he has been very involved, down to the glamorous, deep green packaging. “The rum tastes like tropical luxury so everything else, from the bottle to the box, was an extension of that feeling.” (Indeed, the official name, pronounced Sel-Vuh-Ray, loosely translates to “king of the jungle.”)

In terms of the specialty cocktails that the rum lends itself to and which make up some of the offerings at the new pop-up, Mars said, “You can usually catch me drinking the Hollywood Colada (a twist on the Pina, complete with fresh pineapple juice). It’s light and delicious so I can stick with that all night.“ If you fancy a boogie later on, though (perhaps to some Bruno Mars): “The Cold Brewno is the choice for dancing.”

One other tip from the man himself: “Add SelvaRey Chocolate Rum to ice cream and thank me later.”

Finally, when I deigned to ask Mars who he would choose if he could have a drink with any dead celebrity — actor or musician — he came back with a crafty response. “I like to have drinks with living people.”

Fair enough.

If life is for the living, there was plenty of that a little later, when Mars swapped stir sticks for the drums at a bigger party held on another side of the property, twilight setting here on the majestic Kohala Coast. In addition to some dynamo banging, the entertainer played with an amazing salsa band on hand for the occasion and churned out some of his best-known hits. Exhibit A: the whole crowd singing, in unison, as palm trees swayed: “’Cause girl you’re amazing, just … the … way … you … are.”

On this, a part of Hawaii where one of its most famous kings spent his last years — the warrior king Kamehameha, who unified the Hawaiian Islands — a new, 21st-century kind of royal was nailing his homecoming. The pop sort. King of the jungle, all right.

Shinan Govani is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist covering culture and society. Follow him on Twitter: @shinangovani

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