Bruno Mars Brings Slice Of 'Heaven' To 'MTV First'

Bruno Mars is helping spread a little early holiday cheer to his fans via back-to-back performances this week.

The first of our two tastes of Mars' killer live vocals was a performance of Unorthodox Jukebox lead single "Locked Out of Heaven" during "MTV First: Bruno Mars" on Tuesday night (December 11); the next will be during our "Big & Best of 2012" live stream, starting Wednesday at noon. The skilled crooner rocked our Times Square studio with a clean, stripped-down musical treat for "MTV First." There were no studio-backed or produced sounds; just strong vocals and skillful work on two guitars and two keyboards, making you feel like you were right there in the room with Mars and his band.

Dressed in a casual-but-cool ensemble that included a longer-brimmed fedora, aviators and a blazer over a V-neck T-shirt and gold necklaces, Mars clearly enjoyed the performance, and you could sense the sweet romantic sentiment behind the lyrics in his homage to the Police.

Mars had everyone in our studio and MTV News' Sway Calloway all worked up and moved after the performance. "What a beautiful song!" Sway said to Mars and his backing band/singers before asking about the singer/songwriter's diverse inspirations for "Jukebox."

"I don't know, I like to go into the studio and how I feel, that' s what comes out in my music," Mars explained. "One day I feel like this, another day I feel like that. I think the most important ingredient is for me to have fun going into the studio and by me being unorthodox — that's what my music sounds like."

Don't forget to come back to MTV on Wednesday at noon for our "Big & Best of 2012" live stream and another expected crowd-pleaser from Mars with his performance of "Young Girls."