Marc Martel | |
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Background information | |
Born | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | November 16, 1976
Genres | Rock, Christian rock, pop |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, trumpet, sitar |
Years active | 1999–present |
Member of | One Vision of Queen |
Formerly of | Queen Extravaganza, Downhere |
Website | marcmartelmusic |
Marc Martel is a Canadian Christian rock musician. In 1999, he formed the band Downhere before going solo in 2013. Aside from his own work, Martel is known for his Queen covers and his vocal likeness to frontman Freddie Mercury. He provided some parts of Mercury's singing voice in the film Bohemian Rhapsody . [1]
He was born in Montreal, Canada to Michel Martel and his wife Barbara Beresford Martel. He attended Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, Saskatchewan where he met his roommate Jason Germain. With him and a few friends he formed the band downhere.
Downhere (stylized as downhere) developed their sound while touring on behalf of Briercrest College. After four years of college, the band relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where they signed with Word Records. Downhere went on to win multiple Juno Awards, Covenant Awards and a Dove Award. They released 10 albums, including On the Altar of Love , before going on hiatus effective January 1, 2013. [2]
In September 2011, Martel entered a competition to join Roger Taylor's (original drummer for the rock band Queen) official Queen tribute project, the Queen Extravaganza, with a video of Martel singing along with the Queen classic "Somebody to Love". It generated more than one million views on YouTube after being up for only a few days [3] [4] and as of February 2021 [update] it has over 22 million views. [5] This led to an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a week following the release of the video. Martel went on to be one of the winners of the competition [6] [7] [8] which led to a six-week tour with The Queen Extravaganza in 2012. [9] The Queen Extravaganza continued to tour with Martel until the end of 2016.
Martel released an EP, Prelude, on February 1, 2013 [10] The EP was recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles with producer John Fields.[ citation needed ] His full-length debut, Impersonator, released on September 30, 2014. [11]
In September 2016, he collaborated on "Last Christmas", featured in the video game, Just Dance 2017. [12] On November 18, 2016 The Silent Night EP, a collection of Christmas songs, was released. [13] In 2017, he covered "Footloose" for Just Dance 2018.
In 2017, Martel left Queen Extravaganza and joined the Ultimate Queen Celebration. [14]
In 2019, Martel recorded a new version of "Silver Bells" with Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Christian AC Monitor charts, [15] and the Mediabase Christian AC. This was Martel's first career No. 1 song. [16] He accompanied them on their annual Christmas Tour.
Martel contributed vocal recordings for the Queen biographical film, Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). [17] Film producer Graham King confirmed that Marc Martel recorded vocals for the film in a Rolling Stone article:
Most singing scenes in the movie rely on either vocal stems from Queen master tapes or new recordings by Marc Martel, a Canadian Christian rock singer whose voice is practically identical to the late frontman's. "Literally, you could close your eyes and it's Freddie," says King. "And that's a very tough thing to do." [18]
And in an interview to FilmJournal International he revealed more details about Martel's involvement in the making of the film:
Rami sings a little bit in the film, there's a lot of Freddie Mercury obviously, and a lot of Marc Martel. He sent a video to Brian May and Roger Taylor and he sounds exactly like Freddie Mercury. We knew that we had someone we could use for parts that maybe Rami couldn't do and obviously Freddie didn't do. So we were in Abbey Road recording studio for maybe two and a half months with Marc and with Rami, recording bits and pieces that we knew we needed. It's hard to find someone who can sing like Freddie Mercury and I'm not sure the movie would have happened if we didn't have Marc. [19]
He has also done voice work as Withered Foxy in the 2016 video game Five Nights at Freddy's World . [20]
Martel resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Crystal. [21]
With downhere
Solo
Singles
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, A Night at the Opera (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack of a refraining chorus and consisting of several sections: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. It is one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s to achieve widespread acclaim and commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor, later joined by John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock, and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock.
Freddie Mercury was a British singer and songwriter who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Mercury defied the conventions of a rock frontman with his theatrical style, influencing the artistic direction of Queen.
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was a benefit concert held on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992, at Wembley Stadium in London, England, for an audience of 72,000. The concert was produced for television by Ray Burdis, directed by David Mallet and broadcast live on television and radio to 76 countries around the world, with an audience of up to one billion. The concert was a tribute to Queen's lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS on 24 November 1991.
Roger Meddows Taylor is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He achieved international fame as the drummer and backing vocalist for the rock band Queen. As a drummer, Taylor was recognised early in his career for his unique sound and was voted the eighth-greatest drummer in classic rock music history in a listener poll conducted by Planet Rock in 2005. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 as a member of Queen.
"Killer Queen" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by lead singer Freddie Mercury and recorded for their third album Sheer Heart Attack in 1974. It reached number two in the UK Singles Chart and became their first US hit, reaching number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is about a high-class call girl and has been characterised as "Mercury's piano-led paean to a Moët-quaffing courtesan".
"These Are the Days of Our Lives" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Although credited to the whole band, it was largely written by their drummer Roger Taylor, and is the eighth track on the band's 1991 album Innuendo.
Philip "Spike" Edney is an English musician who, since the 1960s, has performed with a number of bands, most notably with Queen in their live concerts, where his participation started in 1984 during Queen's The Works tour. During the mid-1970s, he recorded and toured with The Tymes and Ben E. King. He is primarily known for playing keyboards but also plays bass, guitar, trombone and contributes backing vocals. Subsequently, in the late 1970s, he was musical director for Edwin Starr and, during the early 1980s, worked with Duran Duran, The Boomtown Rats, Dexys Midnight Runners, Bucks Fizz, Haircut One Hundred and The Rolling Stones. He also appeared with Peter Green on his comeback tour.
Downhere is a Christian rock band from Canada. They have released six studio albums to date: Downhere (2001), So Much for Substitutes (2003), Wide-Eyed and Mystified (2006), Ending Is Beginning (2008), How Many Kings: Songs for Christmas (2009), and On the Altar of Love (2011) and have won several Juno and Covenant Awards.
"Somebody to Love" is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by lead singer and pianist Freddie Mercury. It debuted on the band's 1976 album A Day at the Races and also appears on their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits.
Rami Said Malek is an American actor. He is known for portraying computer hacker Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in the biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), for which he won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win in that category. Time magazine named Malek one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019.
We Are the Champions: Final Live in Japan is a live concert video of English rock band Queen's performance at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Tokyo on 11 May 1985 as part of the Japanese leg of The Works Tour.
The Queen Extravaganza Tour was a concert tour by official Queen tribute band the Queen Extravaganza.
Queen + Adam Lambert is a collaboration between the remaining active members of the British band Queen and American vocalist Adam Lambert. As with all other Queen performances since 1997, longstanding bassist John Deacon has declined to participate in the project due to his retirement. This is the first long-term collaboration of Queen since the Queen + Paul Rodgers project ended in 2009. Like the previous project, it was made clear that Lambert would not be replacing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, but rather that he would be featured with the band's active members.
Queen + Adam Lambert Rock Big Ben Live was a concert on New Year's Eve 2014 and New Years Day 2015 performed by Queen + Adam Lambert to celebrate the New Year in the UK. It was performed in the shadow of Big Ben in Central Hall Westminster in Central London.
Bohemian Rhapsody is a 2018 biographical musical drama film that focuses on the life of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen, from the formation of the band in 1970 to their 1985 Live Aid performance at the original Wembley Stadium. It was directed by Bryan Singer from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, and produced by Graham King and Queen manager Jim Beach. It stars Rami Malek as Mercury, with Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, and Mike Myers in supporting roles. Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor also served as consultants. A British-American venture, it was produced by Regency Enterprises, GK Films and Queen Films, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
The Rhapsody Tour was a worldwide concert tour by Queen + Adam Lambert, the collaboration between British rock band Queen and American singer Adam Lambert. The tour was announced following the success of the biopic film Bohemian Rhapsody. The tour marks the group's third visits to North America and Oceania after performing there in 2014 as part of the Queen + Adam Lambert Tour 2014–2015 and in 2017 and 2018 as part of the Queen + Adam Lambert Tour 2017–2018. The North American dates of the tour sold out in April 2019. The North American leg began on 10 July 2019, in Vancouver, Canada at the Rogers Arena and continued throughout the continent until its last show in Charlotte. The tour concluded in Tokyo Dome on 14 February 2024.