UPDATE: The Queen Audition Heard Around the World

You'll love Marc's recent performance in Quebec City!

It was the audition heard around the world.

SIX years ago, Canadian singer Marc Martel posted his audition for Queen Extravaganza and the world went wild. He was described as Freddie Mercury reincarnated. In case you’re not one of the 12.7 million people who have watched the video, here it is!

 

He was chosen as one of the lead vocalists for the Queen Extravaganza, of course! During one of the rehearsals, he sang a few notes of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and it stopped Brian Taylor in his tracks. He said “It was as if Freddie was in the room.”

Now Marc is recording solo material and is still covering Queen with his  Ultimate Queen Celebration show.

Here is his amazing performance from this past weekend in Quebec City:

And I LOVE this Queen tune. Marc sounds amazing!


But what about Marc as Marc? He wasn’t an unknown before his Queen audition, just not widely known. He had been in music for years with his band Downhere. They formed in 1999 while in Bible College in Saskatchewan. They grew a large fan base and even won a Juno award.
Here I am with them when I was 18. I was not quite 2 years into my first, part-time, radio job. I was able to go to Darien Lake for the music festival Kingdom Bound. ( I think this was in 2003.)


After Marc won a spot as one of the vocalists for Queen Extravaganza, Downhere decided to go on hiatus. Each of the members felt led to other things but they’re open to playing together again if the opportunity allows.
Marc’s solo album title Impersonator plays off the fact that he is now more known for his uncanny Freddie-like vocals, but he says the songs on the album are all him. Here’s one of them:

 

Title image from Youtube