Uptown Funk is a song by British record producer Mark Ronson from his fourth studio album, Uptown Special (2015), featuring American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars. It was released as the album's lead single in November 2014 via download in several countries.
The composition of Uptown Funk began during a freestyle studio session when they worked on a jam Mars and his band played on tour. Copyright controversies arose after the song's release resulting in multiple lawsuits and amendments to its songwriting credits. The song is a funk-pop, soul, boogie and disco-pop track. It has a spirit akin to the 1980s-era funk music. Its lyrics address fashion, self-love and "traditional masculine bravado", performed in a sing-rapping style filled with metaphors, arrogance, charisma, and fun. Upon its release, the single received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the instrumental, style and influences of the track. Others criticised it for not being innovative as it tried to emulate 1980s funk music. Commercially, the song topped the charts of 19 countries and reached the top 10 of 15 others, making it the most successful single of Ronson and Mars to date. In the USA, Uptown Funk topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks and spent seven weeks on the top of the UK Singles Chart. Director Cameron Duddy and Mars shot the song's music video depicting Ronson, Mars and The Hooligans singing, walking and dancing in a city street. As of July 2022, the official music video is the eighth most viewed YouTube video of all-time, having received over 4.6 billion views. The song has been performed on television shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. It received several awards and nominations, winning British Single of the Year at the 2015 Brit Awards and Record of the Year at the 2016 Grammy Awards. The television show soundtrack of Glee, and commercials for L'Oreal's Garnier line and Skippy peanut butter, have used the song. It has been parodied several times and became a worldwide phenomenon with a major impact on pop culture.
