Mark Ronson

Mark Ronson is a multi-hyphenate with a Midas touch: a producer, songwriter and entertainer who, since the turn of the millennium, has changed the sound of pop music. Born in London in 1975, Ronson grew up surrounded by music: His father managed bands, and his mother later married Foreigner’s Mick Jones. Ronson started off as a hip-hop DJ while studying at New York University, and his debut album, 2003’s Here Comes the Fuzz, first displayed his uncanny ability to bridge musical worlds. Over zig-zagging funk, disco and reggae, he incorporated an unlikely array of guests—Ghostface Killah, Jack White and Rivers Cuomo—that anticipated the new century’s genre-agnostic approach to pop. Ronson beefed up his own music’s vintage polish and soulful depths on 2007’s Version, around the same time that he became equally celebrated for his production work. Along with records for Lily Allen and Christina Aguilera, Ronson co-produced Amy Winehouse’s acclaimed 2006 LP Back to Black, taking home three Grammys. In ensuing years, he’s manned the boards for Adele, Lady Gaga, and Paul McCartney—a diverse group whose only common denominator is a determination to break boundaries. Ronson is no stranger to the latter: His 2014 party jam, “Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars)”, is notable not only for its chart-topping run but also the speed with which it became universally recognised as a timeless slice of pop perfection, destined to amp up wedding receptions for decades to come. Subsequent albums, like 2015’s Uptown Special and 2019’s Late Night Feelings, have found him masterminding ever more audacious guest lists while finding new ways to make evergreen styles sound entirely new.