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<p>The son of a pastor and a piano player, singer Marc Martel&#8217;s musical journey started in church and has taken him to big stages where, when he&#8217;s not performing his original music, he&#8217;s invoking one of rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll&#8217;s most hallowed voices &#8212; that of Freddie Mercury.</p><p>Martel will perform with Queen tribute The Ultimate Queen Celebration at 8 p.m. Saturday at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>No stranger to fronting Queen projects, Martel has handled vocals for the Queen Extravaganza &#8212; the official Queen tribute started by Queen founders Roger Taylor and Brian May &#8212; since 2012, but he didn&#8217;t always envision himself as the stand-in for the late, iconic Mercury.</p><p>&#8220;I did not grow up listening to to Queen,&#8221; Martel said.</p><p>But when Martel&#8217;s band Downhere, which was signed to a Nashville record label in 2001 and was active for 13 years, began reaching wider audiences, fans frequently pointed out Martel&#8217;s uncanny vocal resemblance to one revered frontman.</p><p>&#8220;It was never Barry Manilow,&#8221; Martel joked.</p><p>After the regular comparison to Mercury, Martel began delving into Queen&#8217;s catalogue.</p><p>&#8220;The music is incredible, and they&#8217;re one of the greatest bands of all time, but I never thought it would be a part of my life more than admiring their work,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Queen is a big part of what I do these days.&#8221;</p><p>In 2011, when Taylor and May held a singing competition to find the right vocalist for the Queen Extravaganza, Martel answered the casting call and was selected to front the band.</p><p>&#8220;To this day, I have to pinch myself that that ever happened,&#8221; Martel said. &#8220;The guy at the drums (Taylor) behind the greatest performer of 20 years said, &#8216;If you close your eyes, it was like Freddie was in the room.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>That honor is not lost on Martel, who said he&#8217;s in awe of how hard Mercury pushed himself and utilized his voice in live and studio performances.</p><p>&#8220;He was able to give all of himself to 100,000 people,&#8221; Martel said. &#8220;It&#8217;s motivated me to push myself harder.&#8221;</p><p>Although he&#8217;s toured widely and is still involved with the Queen Extravaganza, Martel launched The Ultimate Queen Celebration project in March.</p><p>&#8220;I get a little more artistic freedom in this show,&#8221; Martel said. &#8220;I feel like I have a good feel for how Freddy interpreted the music. Later in life, he branched out and did his own things, a few covers and some opera. I&#8217;ll pick a couple of songs that I wish Freddy recorded in his lifetime and perform them in his style.&#8221;</p><p>Martel said it&#8217;s &#8220;a pleasure&#8221; to continue the legacy of Queen in any way he can and that it&#8217;s &#8220;incredible&#8221; to walk onto a stage where everyone in the audiences knows the songs as well as he does.</p><p>And although he&#8217;s &#8220;happy to be mentioned in the same sentence&#8221; as May and Taylor, he also finds time to work on his original music.</p><p>The powerful vocalist has started a Kickstarter campaign, accessible at <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1150001885/marc-martels-covers-and-christmas-eps" target="_blank">tinyurl.com/yco5d2hm</a>, to help him afford his next two records, an album of covers and another of Christmas songs.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Ultimate Queen Celebration is fronted by Marc Martel, who was chosen in 2011 by Queen founding members Roger Taylor and Brian May to front the official Queen tribute. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Queen.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Ultimate Queen Celebration is fronted by Marc Martel, who was chosen in 2011 by Queen founding members Roger Taylor and Brian May to front the official Queen tribute. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Ultimate Queen Celebration to play F.M. Kirby Center</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Matt Mattei</p><p>mmattei@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>The Ultimate Queen Celebration starring Marc Martel</p><p><strong>Where: </strong>F.M. Kirby Center, 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>When: </strong>8 p.m. Saturday</p><p><strong>Additional information: </strong>Tickets range from $28 to $76 and are available a the Kirby Center box office, online at kirbycenter.org and by phone at 570-826-1100.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Matt Mattei at 570-991-6651 or on Twitter @TimesLeaderMatt.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Queen tribute act featuring Freddie Mercury sound-alike slated for W-B show