Marc's a really good guy and his recent youtube audition for the Queen Extravaganza has generated 2,000,000 youtube views in four days!

Anyways, he's a great vocal talent, and if you hadn't seen it, check him out doing Queen's Somebody to Love :

My "Somebody To Love" audition - YouTube

The band he's in, Downhere, is [IMHo] awesome, as well. From a live show:

How Many Kings - Live in Cambridge ON - YouTube

Check him out.

very good

Thanks, Mlange.

This guy is absolutely awesome!!!

And in my line of work, I have a horrible reputation of being very hard on singers (especially the deaf ones) ... and I concur.

Wall Street Journal:
Marc Martel Channels Freddie Mercury

That's a good one!

It's so fun to see this happening. Mark, Jason and the crew are such good guys. Marc just got married a few months ago, too.

As to the video, I was glad he left the slightly pitchy intro bars and didn't do more takes.... that's *really* how he sings. A month ago you could've caught them at a free live show(and a killer one, at that) along with maybe 100 other folks. Now..... well, let's see what the next five days brings.

Now passing 3,000,000 views, there will have been 12.65 YEARS of Marc Martel 's singing heard worldwide in the past SIX DAYS!

Inconceivable.

A few days ago I facebooked the link to my extensive european crowd.

Another one:



And...

Ok I just can't help myself, I've got to add my two cents...I'll preface my comments by saying I think Marc Martel has a GOOD - almost excellent voice (not great, and very little to no real style...at least as shown in these videos) and judging by what MLang says he's a very nice guy... BUT...and this is a big BUT(T)...He doesn't really even come close to Freddi Mercury (I'm not a big Freddi fan btw - just for the record). His covers are almost note for note copies of the originals (at least he's trying for exact copies - doesn't quite get it...pitchy is a understatment). I can't even imagine what would happen if he were to try to embelish or ad-lib (as Freddi almost always did - check out the live version of "somebody to love" that's on youtube) maybe it'd be ok, but I doubt it judging by what I've seen/heard. Ok, so that's the sound part of the equation...What about the actual performance? I hope to hell this guy is rehearsing his ass off and studying Feddi's moves, because without them, the voice is going to fall flat (Freddi was pretty flamboyant no?) and make for a very boring show...I mean why not just play the record and lipsync it? Anyway, I'm not trying to skewer this guy, I just think the hype is bigger than the reality...

I think this guy has got more balls than Freddy Mercury. At least this guy did it all live. Freddy mercury didn't do the choir thing at all. Just used stage explosions and a bunch of crap while the light show rolled along with a recording. I realize it's all Freddy Mercury on the recording for the vocals, but if you're talking "ad lib" for crying out loud if this guy can afford a hand full of choir singers I'd think Freddy Mercury could have. That's what I saw. This guy did it all. I mean ALL!

Hmmm.

I'm not hearing the "pitchy is a understatment" thing. I think the guy is an amazing singer with a great voice. It's not absolutely perfect - but I doubt even Freddie Mercury could have delivered these tunes absolutely record-perfect live, every time. Marc Martel is really, REALLY good. A really good singer, in his own right, as well as a very good Freddie Mercury imitator.

But I do get the idea that he is trying to make note-for-note copies of the originals (although he did ad-lib a bit on the audition video, at the guitar solo)and the actual performance question. I'm wondering how the singer for a straight-up Christian band that has thus-far shown very little stagemanship in these videos is going to emulate the prancing, spandex-clad, package-bulging, overtly-FLAMBOYANTLY-gay Freddie Mercury.

BTW, his video is being talked about all over the web and throughout the "record industry."

Lots of people are very impressed.