Bruno Mars named Billboard Artist of the Year

Despite the seeming omnipresence of Miley Cyrus and Justin Timberlake, Billboard has named Bruno Mars as its Artist of the Year for 2013.

Billboard admits that selecting the popular crooner as the artist of the year for 2013 might seem unusual, but the numbers for his latest release Unorthodox Jukebox back them up.

Since the album was released a year ago in December, it remained in the top 20 of the Billboard 200 until Sept. 14. Unorthodox Jukebox debuted at No. 2 and after 12 weeks managed to become No. 1. Numbers from Nielsen SoudScan show that the album has sold 1.8 million copies since its release.

Co-manager Brandon Creed spoke about Mars, saying "It's been an incredible year." He noted, "We definitely had goals going into this project."

Mars spoke about how right "now is the fun time" after working so hard. "My dream was not to get a day job but to sleep, wake up and do my music. ... I want to keep that dream forever. That's it. That's what I love to do."

According to The Associated Press, Taylor Swift was named top female artist of the year by Billboard, while Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were honored with top group and new act as Billboard evidently loves to share top honors with several artists.

Mars has had a good year in addition to the sales of his latest album, as he has also been nominated for several Grammy Award nominations and he is preparing for a new tour called Moonshine Jungle World Tour in the summer.

He noted that being name Billboard's Artist of the Year is "flattering. It's just an honor."


image: Billboard

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