Bruno Mars embraces the Unorthodox (Updated January 2, 2013)

Baby-faced Bruno Mars (born Peter Hernandez Jr.) has been a force on the music scene since childhood, when he performed at venues around Honolulu, Hawaii. By the time he graduated high school and moved to Los Angeles to purse a music career, the old-fashioned entertainer wrote and produced songs for other artists before making a name for himself with his own vocal prowess.

From a young age, Mars impersonated and performed songs by artists like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. He'd go on to co-pen Flo Rida's "Right Round" and K'naan's "Wavin' Flag," among others. He eventually reached prominence as a solo artist after co-writing and being featured on B.o.B's "Nothin On You." So it wasn't at all surprising when Mars' debut album, "Doo-Wops and Hooligans" quickly climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and several other charts worldwide.

The lead single to Mars' freshman project, "Just the Way You Are," was eclipsed in popularity only by the follow-up, "Grenade." Praised by critics and fans for his 'dance-floor swagger,' Mars opened for Martoon 5 on the fall leg of the Hands All Over Tour, and his arrest for cocaine possession was barely a blip on the radar before he won his very first Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Mars' sophomore project, "Unorthodox Jukebox," bowed in December 2012 and projected the singer as unleashing his inner bad boy. Critics questioned his obvious efforts to flip his otherwise austere image, especially with songs about blowing his royalties at a strip club on "Money Make Her Smile." Still, Mars maintains the only thing he wants from his music career is the freedom to walk into a studio and make the music he wants to make. Unorthodox and all.