{"id":917,"date":"2011-12-08T16:00:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T21:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/?p=917"},"modified":"2011-12-08T20:31:48","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T01:31:48","slug":"marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html","title":{"rendered":"Marc Martel chosen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Extravaganza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Marc Martel (far right) pictured with his band Downhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After an international search, Downhere lead singer Marc Martel was selected to portray Freddie Mercury in next year’s highly anticipated Queen Extravaganza tour. Martel famously blew up the internet with his You Tube performance of “Somebody To Love” and later performed the song on “The Ellen Degeneres Show.”<\/p>\n

The live auditions took place earlier this week in Los Angeles where finalists were put together in various combinations to perform Queen songs for the panel of judges that included Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Spike Edney (the band’s keyboardist since the mid ’80s) and long-time sound engineer Trip Khalaf.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Whole Notes spoke to Marc who said that although he has fought comparisons to Mercury for years now, he agrees that his rise to notoriety because of that quirky similarity proves God has a pretty good sense of humor.<\/p>\n

“Absolutely,” Martel told Whole Notes. “And I think the last 10 years have been a preparation for me to be able to handle this. I don\u2019t think I could\u2019ve handled this 10 years ago. God\u2019s moving in this very obviously.”<\/p>\n

To check out the full interview, which includes his initial internet audition, click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends! After an international search, Downhere lead singer Marc Martel was selected to portray Freddie Mercury in next year’s highly anticipated Queen Extravaganza tour. Martel famously blew up the internet with his You Tube performance of “Somebody To Love” and later performed the song on “The Ellen Degeneres…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[279,464,460,462,557,556,558,559],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-music-news","tag-downhere","tag-ellen-degeneres","tag-marc-martel","tag-queen","tag-queen-extravaganza","tag-roger-taylor","tag-spike-edney","tag-trip-khalaf"],"yoast_head":"\nMarc Martel chosen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Extravaganza - Whole Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marc Martel chosen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Extravaganza - Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! After an international search, Downhere lead singer Marc Martel was selected to portray Freddie Mercury in next year’s highly anticipated Queen Extravaganza tour. Martel famously blew up the internet with his You Tube performance of “Somebody To Love” and later performed the song on “The Ellen Degeneres…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-08T21:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-09T01:31:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/12\/img8734-w1900h1900-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Bonham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Marc Martel chosen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Extravaganza - Whole Notes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Marc Martel chosen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Extravaganza - Whole Notes","og_description":"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! After an international search, Downhere lead singer Marc Martel was selected to portray Freddie Mercury in next year’s highly anticipated Queen Extravaganza tour. Martel famously blew up the internet with his You Tube performance of “Somebody To Love” and later performed the song on “The Ellen Degeneres…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html","og_site_name":"Whole Notes","article_published_time":"2011-12-08T21:00:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-12-09T01:31:48+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/12\/img8734-w1900h1900-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Chad Bonham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html","name":"Marc Martel chosen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Extravaganza - Whole Notes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/12\/img8734-w1900h1900-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-12-08T21:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-09T01:31:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/12\/img8734-w1900h1900-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/12\/img8734-w1900h1900-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/12\/marc-martel-chosen-to-play-freddie-mercury-in-queen-extravaganza.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Marc Martel chosen to play Freddie Mercury in Queen Extravaganza"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/","name":"Whole Notes","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1","name":"Chad Bonham","description":"Chad has been working in mass media for over 20 years. Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":923,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}