Not being a movie person, I have no opinion about who should win anything at tonight’s Academy Awards. But I did see “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and while the movie has been criticized for downplaying Freddie Mercury’s gayness, Rami Malek’s performance is riveting and IMO Oscar-worthy. But while producers have said the soundtrack features a blend of Malek’s voice and Mercury’s old master recordings, they also used someone they didn’t talk much about — a singer named Marc Martel.
Martel is a Canadian singer who formed a Christian rock band around the turn of the millennium while at Bible college in Saskatchewan. People always told him he sounded like Freddie Mercury, so when Queen drummer Roger Taylor advertised for a singer for the Queen Extravaganza tour in 2011, Martel sent in an audition tape doing one of Mercury’s most demanding songs, “Somebody to Love.” The tape went viral.
Listen to him perform a solo version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the piano and it’s pretty clear they didn’t need anybody else’s vocals. Martel had to sign an NDA about his work on the movie, so maybe they didn’t.
His Mercury impression was popular enough to land him on not just Ellen DeGeneres’ American TV show, but Celine Dion’s show in Quebec, too. He was a surprise guest and serenaded her with “Somebody to Love.” This time, with a full orchestra and choir backing him, he gets to finish the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atb5AMkWHks