Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 10/21/2012 at 11:04 AM Videos

The Popdust Files: bruno mars, locked out of heaven, snl, TV Party, young wild girls

Bruno Mars may have felt nervousness about doing the hosting/performer double duty thing on last night’s “SNL,” but such nerves quickly fell by the wayside—as he himself expressed, during the opening “I’ll Be Amazing” number, in which he accurately predicted that he’d end up doing all right. In addition to this self-fulfilling prophecy, Bruno played two new songs off his upcoming Unorthodox Jukebox album, the familiar single  “Locked Out of Heaven” and the new “Young Wild Girls,” a surprisingly emotional ballad about the temptations of the titular group, with a hook of “Oh you young wild girls / you make a mess of me / Yeah you young wild girls / You’ll be the death of me.” (Not as immediately grabbing as “Heaven,” but then again, we really liked that song.)

Also, Bruno did a Pandora-related sketch that involved him doing imitations of the likes of Green Day and Justin Bieber. It’s not available to watch online, but sportswriter Bill Simmons was certainly a fan:

That Bruno Mars/Pandora sketch on SNL was off the charts good. Bruno Mars! Who knew?

— Bill Simmons (@sportsguy33) October 21, 2012