Bruno Mars 'owes a lot to Kara DioGuardi'

Bruno Mars has admitted that he owes his fame to former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.

Mars, whose debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans is released on Tuesday, spoke to Billy Bush on The Billy Bush Radio Show on Friday, revealing that DioGuardi offered him some valuable advice at the start of his music career.

"I’m writing this song for me, and I got approached by another label that heard one of these songs and they said, 'Look, we want this song for another artist'," Mars told Bush. "We don’t want to sign you, we want to take your song for another artist."

Mars added that he was reluctant to hand his song to someone else, but that DioGuardi ultimately persuaded him to do so.

"At the time, I was working with Kara for the first time and I said ‘Kara, I don’t know what to do. I want to be an artist, [but] they want my music! This is my art!'" he continued. "[Kara] looks at me and she says, 'Stop being a bitch. No one knows who the hell you are! What is it, the last song you’re ever gonna write?' So I did, and that paid my rent."

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