"Just the Way You Are" is the debut solo single by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars. It is the lead single from his debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010). The song was written by Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine, Khalil Walton and Needlz and produced by the former three, under their alias, the Smeezingtons along with Needlz. It was released in the United States to contemporary hit radio on August 10, 2010. The track was released in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2010, as "Just the Way You Are (Amazing)". The song's lyrics compliment a woman's beauty.
The debut single received mixed reviews from music critics, who praised the Smeezingtons' production but dubbed its lyrics as sappy and corny. It won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. The song peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and in the United Kingdom charts and peaked in the top five in other countries. It was certified thirteen times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), seven times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and diamond by Music Canada (MC). "Just the Way You Are" was the best-selling digital single of 2011, selling more than 12.5 million copies, thus joining an elite group of best-selling singles worldwide.
The music video, directed by Ethan Lader, was released on September 8, 2010, and features Peruvian born Australian actress Nathalie Kelley. Mars performed "Just The Way You Are" at Saturday Night Live and at The Ellen DeGeneres Show. He has sung "Just the Way You Are" on all his tours since 2010, sometimes as an encore, and included it during his performance at the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show. The song has been covered by various recording artists and it inspired Meghan Trainor's debut single "All About That Bass" (2014).
Writing and production
Bruno Mars said of the song, "It took me months to come up with 'Just the Way You Are'... I wasn't thinking of anything deep or poetic. I was telling a story. Get ready to fall in love!" It was inspired by Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" (1977) and Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" (1990). Mars explained, "I'm a big fan of songs like Joe Cocker's 'You Are So Beautiful' and Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' – songs that go straight to the point. You know, there's no mind-boggling lyrics or twists in the story – they just come directly from the heart. And to me 'Just The Way You Are' is one of those songs. There's nothing mind-blowing about it. I'm just telling a woman she looks beautiful the way she IS – and, let's be honest, what woman doesn't wanna hear those lyrics?!"
Mars's A&R, Aaron Bay-Schuck, was responsible for finding the original idea from American record producers and songwriters Khalil Walton and Needlz. Mars originally sang the hook that Khalil and Needlz wrote for a feature on a Lupe Fiasco record. Needlz allowed Mars to use the idea for his album. This was all facilitated by Bay-Shuck, who told HitQuarters that as soon as "Just the Way You Are" was finished they knew they had the first single, saying: "It had a massive chorus, an instantly memorable melody and lyric, and was a natural transition from the B.o.B and Travie McCoy songs ... [Also] it didn't sound like anything else on the radio. It had everything we could want in a first single for Bruno."
Ari Levine explained: "Needlz had a track with a melody idea by Khalil Walton that was presented to us by one of the A&R guys. Bruno and Phil came up with the chorus, and then Needlz sent us the files and we replaced a bunch of sounds with our sounds and I programmed drums in the MPC, and we wrote the rest of the song. I never met Needlz or Walton". The song was offered to Lupe Fiasco and CeeLo Green, but at that point, Mars decided to keep it.
"Just the Way You Are" was written by Mars, Philip Lawrence, Levine, Walton, and Needlz, while production was handled by the Smeezingtons along with Needlz. Levine and Mars played all the instruments on the track, with the former engineering the song at Levcon Studios in California. The track was mixed at Larrabee Sound Studios in Los Angeles by Manny Marroquin, while Christian Plata and Erik Madrid served as mixing assistants. It was mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California.