Martel’s Mercury has Celine in rhapsodies
Marc Martel admits that he’d barely heard of Freddie Mercury until just over a decade ago.
It’s a hilarious admission from a man who now makes much of his living touring the world because of his vocal similarity to the much-loved Queen frontman.
Ahead of his first visit to our shores later this month, the
41-year-old Canadian confesses he really didn’t grow up ‘‘listening to the coolest music’’, but was encouraged to check out the classic British rock band after one of his own thenbandmates believed Martel sounded a lot like the Somebody to Love and I Want it All singer.
‘‘I immediately recognised that Freddie’s vocal chords bore an uncanny resemblance to mine – or vice-versa I guess – and yeah, the rest, is history.’’
That history has included fronting Queen Extravaganza (the tribute band officially endorsed by Mercury’s bandmates Roger Taylor and Brian May) since 2012, a performance on Ellen DeGeneres’ talkshow and being especially requested to perform on a French-Canadian programme by Celine Dion in
2016. ‘‘It’s a show that films in Montreal – a kind ofa This is Your Life in Music. Each episode focuses on a French-Canadian artist and they had finally booked Celine for their season opener. Now, they always give the honoree a questionnaire asking them things like, ‘what was a song you listened to growing up that meant a lot to you?’, or ‘what was your mother’s favourite song?’.
‘‘But the very last thing on the questionnaire asks, ‘is there an artist you’d like to see do a tribute? And she wrote that she would love nothing more than me performing a Queen song. Of course, when they called, the answer was ‘yes’.’’
And Dion’s reaction to his singing on the show? ‘‘Right after I performed, she came up and whispered in my ear, ‘I’m crazy about you and what you do’. We then got to talking a little bit after the show, especially about her recent appearance on Jimmy Fallon where she had done celebrity vocal impressions.
‘‘That was how I had developed my singing style in the first place – imitating other singers like George Michael and Richard Marx. So I wondered why [doing impressions] that’s kind of a big thing in our culture. And she was like, ‘you know, I’ve given it some thought, it’s because we’re very good listeners, which means we’re very good lovers’.’’
Admitting that his favourite Queen songs are staples Bohemian Rhapsody and Under Pressure, as well as the lesserknown Love of My Life, Martel says the upcoming Ultimate Queen Celebration that Kiwi audiences will see and hear will be a little different from a traditional Queen tribute show.
‘‘I’ve got a little more artistic freedom. I like to spend a little time during the night telling the audience how much I admire Freddie’s work and how he dabbled in other kinds of music.’’
And there are no flamboyant costumes. ‘‘Everyone has their own tastes. Some people want to feel like it’s Queen onstage, including the dress-up thing, but that’s not my style.’’
Martel though certainly respects his ‘‘rival’’ Mercurys, including former British Stars in Their Eyes winner Gary Mullen, a regular visitor to New Zealand.
‘‘We all do our own thing to represent Queen. He’s a lovely guy and I even met him when he and his son came to a show I did in Scotland to say hi.’’
The one thing Martel won’t confirm or deny is whether he provides the singing ‘‘voice’’ for Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury in the Hollywood biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, due out later this year. That’s despite the movie’s producer Graham King telling Rolling Stone magazine that they relied either on vocal stems from Queen mastertapes or new recordings by Martel for the singing scenes.
‘‘Literally, you could close your eyes and it’s Freddie,’’ King said of Martel’s efforts. ‘‘And that’s a very tough thing to do.’’
In response, all Martel will say is, ‘‘it sure is cool that I was mentioned in Rolling Stone’’.
‘‘After I performed she [Celine] came up and whispered in my ear, ‘I’m crazy about you and what you do’.’’