Bruno Mars Debuts ‘Locked Out of Heaven’ During YouTube Chat

Photo: Harper Smith

Bruno Mars debuted “Locked Out of Heaven,” the first single from his forthcoming second album, during a live YouTube chat with fans. Mars said he and two additional members of his production team, the Smeezingtons ”“ both of whom joined him for the chat ”“ have been slaving over the track in a Los Angeles studio for the past few months. “So if it’s not good, we’ve wasted a lot of time,” he deadpanned before rolling the track.

The song (hear it below) is a funk-flavored booty-shaker, full of thick bass runs and a grandiose chorus in line with what we’ve become accustomed to from Mars. Lyrically, the singer praises his special someone for her earth-shattering ways. “You bring me to my knees / You make me testify / You can make a sick man change his ways / Open up your gates ‘cuz I can’t wait to see the light,” he sings during the verse. In the song’s chorus Mars’ sentiment is blunt: “Your sex takes me to paradise,” he croons, before confessing how he feels as if he’s been “locked out of heaven for too long.”

Afterward, wearing his signature fedora and sipping champagne, Mars answered fan-submitted questions. When asked to explain the delay between his debut, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and his new album, Unorthodox Jukebox, due December 11th, Mars said he and his producers have been locked away in the studio making sure the newest is up to his high standards. “It took us a while on this one because we really wanted to make sure it was the best it could possibly be and keep shocking ourselves,” Mars said. Later the singer admitted his first album had been “rushed,” but recording Jukebox offered him the luxury to “focus and fine-tune every song. I really had a much better vision of exactly what I wanted to do this time around,” he explained.

The “Just the Way You Are” pop star also touched upon his upcoming gig hosting and performing as the  musical guest on Saturday Night Live on October 20th (“That sounds fun as hell,” he said, adding that it will also mark the live debut of “Locked Out of Heaven”) and that time he was star-struck by Mick Jagger. “That’s just like, ‘Wow,’” he said of meeting the Rolling Stones frontman. “That’s wow-struck.”

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