The New ‘Fortnite’ Festival Season 9 Artist Is Bruno Mars – And The Crowd Goes Mild

According to dataminers, Bruno Mars will be the artist featured in Fortnite Festival Season 9. Yes, you read that right—Epic Games is apparently bringing back the Grammy-winning singer for an encore in Chapter 6 Season 3. However, many players are not happy with Fortnite‘s concert series already reusing artists.

Bruno Mars is ‘Fortnite’ Festival’s Season 9 Artist

On June 17, prominent dataminers ShiinaBr and SamLeakss revealed that Bruno Mars would be the next concert artist for Fortnite Festival Season 9. This makes the second time the singer has appeared in the Battle Royale, as he originally made his debut back in 2021 as a part of the Chapter 3: Season 1 Silk Sonic Set.

According to the Epic Games insiders, Bruno Mars will get a new skin based on his ‘Die With a Smile’ collaboration with Lady Gaga. “BRUNO MARS x FORTNITE FESTIVAL SKINS include: ‘Bruninho’ Outfit and ‘Die With A Smile’ Outfit.” It’s unclear what his Bruninho outfit is a reference to, but it’s an alternate skin that will be available in the Fortnite Festival battle pass.

Players won’t have to wait long. The Bruno Mars Fortnite Festival release date is actually set for today, June 17, 2025. Dataminers were just able to confirm the featured artist a little early, as Epic Games usually pushes out files on their store servers in the lead-up to a patch going live.

Players Are Not Happy With The Singer’s Return

While Bruno Mars has a lot of fans around the world, not everyone was happy about his return to Fortnite. Many angry players took to social media to criticize Epic Games for the decision. The general complaint I’ve seen is that users expect new artists for Fortnite Festival seasons. People are basically let down that Epic is reusing an artist who has already been in the game.

On X, a user wrote, “I don’t like that we’re already going back to adding existing artists. There’s so many other ones that haven’t been in the game yet.” Another disappointed player exclaimed, “I’m pretty sure we could’ve used another person than a reuse.” One comment simply replied, “Disappointed it’s Bruno Mars.”

Another source of disappointment among fans was the rumor that Deadmau5 was supposed to be the next featured artist in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3. Which is a bit strange, since that rumor had a lot of steam. Perhaps the DJ will still get a future release. Regardless, it looks like Fortnite Festival Season 9 will be heavily Bruno Mars-themed. Maybe we can get a Lady Gaga ‘Die With a Smile’ skin as well. Now that would be pretty awesome.