Over on the MTV Newsroom blog, it was a heated battle for [article id="1670358"]2011's Song of the Summer[/article]. Would it be [artist id="3061469"]Lady Gaga[/artist], [artist id="501686"]Britney Spears[/artist], [artist id="3274550"]Katy Perry[/artist] or [artist id="3132138"]LMFAO[/artist]? Or would [artist id="1188745"]Bad Meets Evil[/artist] (Eminem and Royce Da 5'9'') bring home the title for hip-hop heads everywhere?

Well, on Wednesday (September 7), the world spoke, and the summer jam that reigned supreme was Bad Meets Evil's feel-good anthem "Lighters," featuring [artist id="3528710"]Bruno Mars[/artist]. Earlier this summer, [article id="1668523"]MTV News caught up with Mars[/article], and he revealed just how he ended up on the track.

"It was a freestyle battle," he joked. "I said, 'Yo, Em, if I beat you, you're gonna have to do a song with me!' I shut him down right then and there."

What's no joke is the way fans have been connecting with the track, which proudly declares, "This one's for you and me living out our dreams/ We're all right where we should be/ With my arms out wide I open my eyes/ And now all I wanna see is a sky full of lighters."

Now that Mars and his crew are the ruling Kings of Summer, he is planning his next big move, which includes a top-secret new track. "I'm definitely thinking about what's next," he said. "I've got a song that I just wrote that I'm extremely proud of and I worked really hard on, and it's gonna come out soon."

While he wouldn't say much else, he teased that the song was for Michael Bolton before admitting, "No, it's for me."

In addition to working on more tracks for his own bustling career, he shared that he'd love to get into the studio with Cee Lo Green again, and even Lil Wayne. "But this is just the very beginning and there's a lot more to come."

What are you expecting next from Bruno Mars? Let us know in the comments!