Fortnite Adds Bruno Mars Musical Emote

Over its lifespan, the hit battle royale Fortnite has become known for a lot of things, from bringing the battle royale genre into the mainstream, to its relatively young player base. Additionally, something the game has capitalized on in recent years is its crossovers. Beginning with a promotion for Avengers: Infinity War, bringing fans the opportunity to play as Marvel villain Thanos back in 2018, Fortnite has collaborated with the biggest brands, individuals, and franchises in pop culture.

Of course, the crossovers many fans look forward to the most are skins that allow them to play as their favorite video game, tv show, and movie characters, as well as online or pop-culture personalities. But, the game has also crossed over with a variety of media to bring fans other purchasable cosmetics like in-game lobby music or emotes. Now, Fortnite has officially released a Bruno Mars inspired emote.

The new emote is based on "Leave the Door Open," the latest song from Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak together as Silk Sonic. In a tweet announcing the release of the emote, Fortnite noted that the dance moves for the emote came directly from Bruno Mars. The emote released on April 2 and fans can purchase it for 500 V-Bucks, though it isn't currently known how long it will be available in the Item Shop for.

On Twitter, Bruno Mars tweeted a side-by-side video of himself performing the dance moves next to the Fortnite emote, showing just how accurately it matches up with the musical artist's own moves. Upon the release "Leave the Door Open," the song proved to be an instant hit, with Silk Sonic going on to perform the it at the official 2021 Grammy Award show. It's unknown whether Anderson .Paak had any involvement with the new emote, but he does seem to have a strong relationship with Fortnite and Epic Games as the artist performed a virtual concert alongside his band The Free Nationals just last summer.

Fortnite has had a huge hand in promoting musical artists recently, putting on what many consider to be one of the biggest ever virtual concerts with Travis Scott last year. The game has also held virtual concerts with musical artists Diplo, Dominic Fike, and K-pop sensation BTS. The game has also shown fans full movies in the past and even premiered a new movie trailer for Tenet last May.

Fortnite seems to never miss a beat when it comes to hopping on trends, also creating emotes for popular songs like Doja Cat's "Say So" and Dua Lipa's "Don't Start Now." It will certainly be interesting to see which musical artists and pop culture media Fortnite decides to collaborate with next.

The first major patch of Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6 has arrived just a few days ago. The 16.10 patch consists of bug fixes, weapon balancing, and other usual things players have come to expect with Fortnite's regular updates. While there wasn't the introduction of any new weapons to the island, one has made its triumphant return: the Egg Launcher.

Epic Games' popular free-to-play battle royale is now well into its third week of Season 6. Dubbed "Primal," the new season has seen many changes to Fortnite's meta, including the addition of fauna (of varying threat levels,) a primal weapon crafting system, map alterations, and other somewhat divisive changes.