We were able to make it workwith the technology available now,taking some vocal recording jobs. Martel has toured with Queen Extravaganza, and, in 2017, he also startedThe Ultimate Queen Celebration. Roger is overseeing the whole thing and it's a celebration of the music. Everyone in the band can sing, right down to the very energetic, Taylor-esque drummer, Tyler Warren. Marc Martel Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT - Dec 30, 2021 Dec 30 2021. I pretty much got that email the day the Queen Extravaganza started in late September. They went way beyond my expectations. I was thinking about what I was going to do in 2012, our families were growing in the band and that's always been our first priority, so we planned to take some extra time off the road so the guys can be with their families. Legendary drummer Roger Taylor has announced Marc Martel as one of the winning vocalists for The Queen Extravaganza contest Thursday. In college he became a member of downhere, as the band was stylized, which had some success and relocated to Nashville where Martel still lives,now with his, wife, Crystal Martel. CP: When you started getting viral feedback for the Youtube video, what were your first impressions of that? Probably the biggest moment we've had as a band throughout the years was in 2006 when we played in Morocco which I believe was in front of 60,000 people. ", Asked if he would have left Nashville were it not for the Queen shows, Martel said, "I don't think so. 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 ". Queen Extravaganza is a show especially designed to allow new fans along with past fans to celebrate Queens music at an unforgettable event. says Roger Taylor. The rock star thing is all kind of fluff. Indeed, in Montreal, "I didn't even know anyone who was a professional musician.". They met with Alirio Netto in December 2017 and announced the band line up in February 2018, well before the September/October 2018 tour that crossed North America and Ireland and the UK.. Marc even played with Queen Extravaganza in May 2018 on the FOX lot, so he seemed amicable to playing with the band if they needed him . By 2013 the band been wrapped up. Spread the word - send out the video to everybody you know. I went to check and all of a sudden it was in the thousands and in the tens of thousands, I think it was around 18,000 views and I had noticed that the comments were coming in almost every second, and people were saying Hey the Internet has arrived welcome to the Internet guy, dude you've gone viral And I was like, What does that even mean, viral video? 50 years of Queen official tribute band "Queen Extravaganza" On the leaked film footage of them reproducing Live Aid it absolutely sounded like Marc. There's three other singers and two guitarists. Downhere went on to win multiple Juno Awards, Covenant Awards and a Dove Award. He sent a video to Brian May and Roger Taylor and he sounds exactly like Freddie Mercury. Montrealer Marc Martel, 35, will be playing the late, great Freddie Mercury in a musical travelling performance of the rock band Queen's musical legacy. Martel mostly recently performed in Massachusetts in 2019 in a Queen celebration with with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood. And got hired for Queen Extravaganza. I love to write my own music, I love what I do in Downhere and hope to keep doing it for a long time, but just the timing of the whole thing and the fact that people have been telling me for years that I sound like Freddie Mercury, it just was kind of a no brainer for me. And . Is it an authentic tribute right down to the shag haircuts, bared chests and Freddie's black leotards? The lighting design, directed by Rob Sinclair, creates diverse visual moods on stage to match Queens extensive and varied song catalogue. After four years of college, the band relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where they signed with Word Records. As hard as it is to believe at certain times. There's a lot of questions as far as what it's going to look like. The band was signed to Word Records after the label contacted the members through email. Im still intrigued as to who is playing the music behind him because they dont have multi tracks for Live Aid and its not the original audio being used, most likely in this instance because the sound quality wont be good enough to be used in film setting. @howarddavidp I just drove three hours to get there myself showed up to the concert the music started to play I have been waiting months for this queen was the first CD that I ever owned my wife knew how much this meant to me. rights reserved. Don't know how long they've known for but it's really not good. At first, the front man almost passed on the opportunity, but with some prodding from his wife and additional friends, he casually cut a version of Somebody To Love in 2011, and now 30 million cumulative YouTube and Facebook views later, bolstered by the aforementioned Ellen appearance, Martel was declared the victor. Martel contributed vocal recordings for the Queen biographical film, Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). All "It's Like Having Freddie Mercury Back!" Marc Martel and - Medium Top 10 Queen Tribute Bands in the World Republication or distribution of this content is CP: Where does the name Downhere come from? and a performance with the surviving members of Queen on American Idol, Marc Martel spent 13 years recording and touring the globe with Canadian rockers Downhere. The Christian Post: Where did you develop this passion for music when you were younger and who did you dream to be?