Bruno Mars returns to Wembley after eight years with first of six nights

**Confidence:** Verified The singer waved an England scarf and clutched a Paddington Bear as he played to a 75,000-strong crowd at the opening night of The Romantic Tour. Bruno Mars opened the first of six nights at Wembley Stadium on 18 July 2026, his first UK performance since July 2018, according to BBC News ( Wembley Stadium's official site ( confirms The Romantic Tour plays six headline shows at the venue this month — the singer's only confirmed UK dates on the tour. The BBC reports Mars wore an England football scarf, a Union Jack bucket hat and held a Paddington Bear as he energised a 75,000-strong, multi-generational crowd, eight years after his last UK show. His previous appearance came shortly after England's 2018 World Cup semi-final exit; history, the BBC noted, had repeated itself. Demand for the dates was record-breaking. Live Nation's newsroom ( says The Romantic Tour set the record for the largest single-day ticket sales in Live Nation history across North America, Europe and the UK, moving 2.1 million tickets in a day. It describes the run as Mars' first full headline tour in nearly a decade, following the 24K Magic World Tour. The two-hour, 15-minute set opened unexpectedly with Risk It All, a ballad from his latest album, The Romantic, before moving through R&B, funk, Latin and pop, the BBC writes. Anderson .Paak joined for a four-song Silk Sonic segment, trading British-accent banter with Mars, and Lady Gaga's Die With a Smile prompted one of the night's biggest singalongs. Mars played into his trademark romantic showmanship throughout, the BBC writes, even emerging in a cape emblazoned with the words The Romantic, which it noted nodded to soul legend James Brown. An "Angel Baby Cam" segment projected fans' reactions onto the giant screens as he serenaded them. Among the crowd were Paul, 58, and his children Alex, 23, and Thomas, 20, who travelled from Hertfordshire and told the BBC the eight-year wait had been worth it. "We've all got little emotional ties to each song," they said, calling it a chance to come together as a family. For fans like them, the BBC says, the hope is they won't have to wait another eight years to see him again. The show closed with Dance With Me, the BBC reports — an unusual, reflective note after a night of fireworks, gold confetti and a Wembley transformed into a giant dancefloor for Uptown Funk. <!-- EDITOR GATE - 2026-07-20 (Source Reporters News Editor) 7-Point Verification: PASS 1) Source on every claim: yes (BBC News, Wembley Stadium official site, Live Nation newsroom) 2) Attributed form: yes 3) No unsigned negative claim about named individual: yes (hard-rule NOT triggered) 4) Ownership/corporate recency <=12mo: ok / N/A 5) No invented entities: yes 6) Internally consistent: yes 7) Confidence tag: Verified Founder human sign-off waived - editorial call made by editor agent. NOT published. --> *Source Reporters corrects errors promptly. Report corrections to corrections@sourcereporters.com.*