His holiday album, The Christmas Collection, earned a favorable review from Digital Journal.
On the song selection of the Christmas album, he said, “It has been 12 years in the making. Most of the work was done over the last three years. When I first got married, my wife wanted me to record a Christmas album for her. When I hired my new manager in 2016, one of the first things on the agenda was to work on Christmas music. We decided to put all of those Christmas songs in one album called The Christmas Collection.”
He listed “O Come, Emmanuel” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” as his favorite tracks on that album. “I love how those two came out,” he admitted.
For Martel, it was a great experience touring with Christian music superstars Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant. “That was a dream come true for me since I grew up listening to Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant,” he said. “I didn’t grow up listening to Queen at all, which may surprise some people.”
Most impressive about Martel is that he lent his voice as Freddie Mercury in the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody biopic. “I did some of the singing in the movie. Most of it was Freddie Mercury’s though,” he explained. “It was really awesome to be a part of Bohemian Rhapsody. They mentioned to me early on that they were in talks in making this movie, and that they would love to get me involved in some capacity on the vocal side of things. Sure enough, the ducks all aligned in 2016 when they had the right script, director and when they got Rami Malek. That was an awesome moment knowing that it was going to happen.”
On being an artist in the digital age, he said, “As far as sharing goes, there is nobody in the industry that hasn’t felt that transition. Back in the day, people used to buy CDs and then Napster came along and changed things. My favorite thing about music is performing it, and you become a musician because you love performing music. You need to be more diligent and you need to tour smarter.”
Martel is all for the recent passage of the Music Modernization Act (MMA), which protects songwriters and creators in the digital age. “I am all for anything that helps protect creative people. Songwriters and royalties have taken a huge hit over the last few years,” he said.
He credits the digital age for being integral in being discovered by Roger Taylor of Queen. He listed “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Under Pressure” and “Love of My Life” as his favorite Queen classics to perform life.
Martel listed such Canadian songstresses Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan as his dream female duet choices in music, and he also complimented the “great” vocals of k.d. lang.
On the title of the current chapter of his life, he noted that this was the year that he said “yes” a lot. “2019 has been the busiest year of my life, by far, and that’s because we’ve said ‘yes’ to every opportunity that was worthy of our time this year. In 2020, we hope to work smarter but not necessarily harder,” he said.
Martel defined the word success as “having a good marriage, but also being a good steward of the gifts that were given.”
The Christmas Collection is available on Apple Music. “It’s packed with Christmas favorites and if you like my voice, it’s really a no-brainer,” he told his fans.
To learn more about singer-songwriter Marc Martel and his music, check out his official website.
