Background and career
Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British and American musician, record producer, songwriter and DJ. He has won ten Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year for Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black (2006), as well as two for Record of the Year with her 2006 single "Rehab" and his own 2014 single "Uptown Funk" (featuring Bruno Mars). Ronson has also won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award for co-writing "Shallow" (performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper) for the film A Star Is Born (2018). Ronson signed with Elektra Records to release his debut studio album, Here Comes the Fuzz (2003), which contained guest performances from prominent American hip hop acts and was met with lukewarm commercial reception. Due to this, he parted ways with Elektra the following year and co-founded his own label, Allido Records. By 2006, Ronson gained wider recognition for his production work on albums and singles for Lily Allen, Christina Aguilera, and Amy Winehouse. During 2007, he signed with Columbia Records and released the Motown-funk cover singles "Stop Me" (featuring Daniel Merriweather) and "Valerie" (featuring Amy Winehouse), both of which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart in promotion of his second album, the covers effort Version (2007). It peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart earned him the Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist. His third album, Record Collection (2010), matched its chart position and moderately entered the U.S. Billboard 200. Ronson's 2014 single "Uptown Funk" (featuring Bruno Mars), yielded his furthest commercial success internationally, spending 14 consecutive weeks atop the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, seven non-consecutive weeks atop the UK Singles Chart, and becoming one of the best-selling singles of all-time. "Uptown Funk" served as the lead single for his fourth studio album Uptown Special (2015), which was dedicated to Winehouse and peaked atop the UK Albums Chart, as well as number five on the Billboard 200. In 2018, Ronson founded the record label Zelig Records, an imprint of Columbia Records, and formed the duo Silk City with fellow producer Diplo; their debut single, "Electricity" (featuring Dua Lipa) was released in September of that year and won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Ronson was lead and executive producer for the soundtrack to the 2023 Greta Gerwig film Barbie, on which he also composed and co-wrote several of its songs with his production partner Andrew Wyatt. The soundtrack won three Grammy Awards—"What Was I Made For?" won Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media, while the parent album won Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media—from 11 nominations, as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Song from two nominations. Ronson and Wyatt would collaborate with Gerwig again in 2026 for the soundtrack to her adaptation of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew for Netflix.
Mark Daniel Ronson was born on 4 September 1975 in Notting Hill, London, to Laurence Ronson, a then music manager and publisher, now real estate developer, and Ann (née Dexter), a writer, jewellery designer, and socialite. His Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors emigrated from Austria, Lithuania, and Russia. Ronson was brought up in a Conservative Jewish household and became bar mitzvah. After his parents' divorce, Ann married Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones. Jones wrote Foreigner's song "I Want to Know What Love Is" about his burgeoning relationship with her. Ronson, along with his mother, stepfather, and sisters, moved to New York City when he was eight years old. Living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Ronson counted Sean Lennon among his childhood friends. At age 12, being a self-described music nerd, he pestered Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner into an internship at the magazine. Ronson attended high school at the private Collegiate School in Manhattan before attending Vassar College and then New York University. In 2008, he obtained American citizenship so that he could vote in that year's presidential election.
Ronson was born into the Ronson family, who were one of Britain's wealthiest families during the 1980s, and the founders of Heron International. His family lost $1 billion of their wealth in the property crash of the early 1990s. He is the nephew of businessman Gerald Ronson. Mark is not related to guitarist Mick Ronson. Through his mother, Ronson is distantly related to British Conservative politicians Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Leon Brittan, and Odeon Cinemas founder Oscar Deutsch. Ronson has two younger sisters: twins Charlotte, a fashion designer, and Samantha, a singer and DJ. Through his mother's second marriage to Mick Jones, Ronson has two older step-siblings and two half-siblings, including actress Annabelle Dexter-Jones. Through his father's second marriage, Ronson has three other half-siblings.
While attending New York University, Ronson became known as a DJ on the local club scene in the early 1990s. He played a diverse, genre-spanning selection, noting: "I've always loved everything. I've never had any kind of genre boundaries". In 1999, Ronson was featured in an ad for Tommy Hilfiger wearing the company's denim in the recording studio.
Ronson transitioned from DJ to producer after Nikka Costa's manager, Dominique Trenier, heard one of his sets and introduced him to several musicians. Ronson produced Costa's song "Everybody Got Their Something", and Ronson soon signed a record contract with Elektra Records. He had already produced tracks for Hilfiger ads and, in 2001, used the connection to have Costa's single "Like a Feather" feature in an advertisement. Ronson's debut album, Here Comes the Fuzz, was released in 2003 and according to a retrospective review "the record sold poorly and (...) critical reception was lukewarm at best, dismissive at worst". The album featured performances from artists from diverse genres, including Mos Def, Jack White, Sean Paul, Nappy Roots and Rivers Cuomo. The lead single "Ooh Wee," reached no. 15 on the UK Singles Chart, and was used in a number of films, including in Honey (2003). Two weeks after releasing Here Comes the Fuzz, Elektra Records dropped Ronson. In 2004, Ronson formed his own record label, Allido Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG's J Records, along with his longtime manager Rich Kleiman.
On 2 April 2007, Ronson released a cover of The Smiths' track "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before", in medley with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On", under the shortened title "Stop Me", featuring Australian singer and frequent collaborator Daniel Merriweather. It reached number 2 in the UK singles charts, giving Ronson his highest-peaking single until 2014's "Uptown Funk". Ronson remixed the Bob Dylan song "Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" in promotion for the three-disc Bob Dylan collection titled Dylan released October 2007. Ronson has also produced Candie Payne's single "One More Chance" in 2007. The cover album Version appeared on his own label with Alexis Petridis describing the song interpretations as "an affectionate pastiche of a 60s soul revue's brass-laden sound". In May 2007 it was awarded the title Album of the Month by the British dance music magazine, Mixmag. On 23 June, Ronson made the cover of The Guardian newspaper's Guide magazine, alongside singer Lily Allen. In June 2007, Ronson signed DC hip hop artist Wale to Allido Records. In late 2007, he focused on production, working with Daniel Merriweather on his debut album, and recording again with Amy Winehouse and Robbie Williams. On 24 October 2007, Ronson performed a one-off set at The Roundhouse in Camden, London as part of the BBC Electric Proms 2007. The performance featured the BBC Concert Orchestra and included special guests Terry Hall, Sean Lennon, Tim Burgess, Alex Greenwald, Ricky Wilson (substituting for Lily Allen), Charlie Waller of The Rumble Strips, Adele and Kyle Falconer. In December 2007, Ronson received his first Grammy Award nomination, for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Ronson's work with Amy Winehouse also received substantial accolades, gaining 6 nominations. Winehouse's Back to Black album, mostly produced by Ronson, was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. Her song "Rehab" received nods for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Ronson would go on to win three Grammys: Producer of the Year as well as Best Pop Vocal Album and Record of the Year (the latter two of which he shared with Amy Winehouse) in early February 2008. Ronson is credited as producer on a mixtape album called Man in the Mirror, released in January 2008 by the rapper Rhymefest which is a tribute to the pop star Michael Jackson. The album features Rhymefest appearing to speak to Michael Jackson using archive audio from interviews with the pop star. The same month Ronson received three nominations for the Brit Awards, including 'Best Male Solo Artist,' 'Best Album' (Version) and 'Song of the Year' ("Valerie"). Ronson won his first Brit for 'Best Male Solo Artist' in mid-February 2008 over favourite Mika. He also performed a medley of Coldplay's "God Put a Smile upon Your Face" with Adele, "Stop Me" with Daniel Merriweather, and "Valerie" with Amy Winehouse. The performance allowed for a large boost in sales in the iTunes UK Top 100. "Valerie" would jump almost 30 spots in the days after the event, while "Just", "Stop Me" and "Oh My God" all appeared in the chart as well. That same week, Ronson appeared twice in the UK Top 40, with "Valerie" rebounding to number 13 and "Just" at number 31, his fourth Top 40 entry from "Version". The Brits performance also allowed for "Version" to climb 18 spots to number 4. Around this time, Ronson received his first number one on an international chart (Dutch Top 40) for "Valerie," which spent four consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. He collaborated with the Kaiser Chiefs on their third album. Ronson toured the album "Version" extensively through both the UK and Europe during 2008. Notable sold-out performances at The Hammersmith Apollo and Brixton Academy. Ronson is known to champion new upcoming artists on the road with him, such as Sam Sparro and Julian Perretta. Ronson's string backing was provided by the all-female string quartet Demon Strings. On 2 July 2008, in Paris, Ronson performed live with Duran Duran for an invited audience. They played new arrangements by Ronson of some Duran Duran songs, along with tracks from the band's new album, Red Carpet Massacre. Ronson & the Version Players also performed songs from his album Version. Simon Le Bon sang. As of March 2009, Ronson was working with the group on their 13th album. The Album, titled All You Need Is Now, was released digitally exclusively via Apple's iTunes on 21 December 2010, while the physical CD was released in March 2011 with additional tracks. In 2013–14 Ronson was once again in the studio producing Duran Duran's 14th album, Paper Gods, making it the first time the band has worked with the same producer on consecutive albums since Colin Thurston produced their first two albums in the 1980s.
