Introduction
Marc Martel (born November 16, 1976) is a Canadian Christian rock musician. Martel was born in Montreal, Canada. His parents instilled a love for music in him that followed him throughout his childhood and to Briercrest College and Seminary in Saskatchewan, where he formed the band Downhere with his roommate Jason Germain and a few close friends in 1999.
Downhere 1999-2011
Downhere developed their sound while touring on behalf of Briercrest College. After four years of college, the band left their Canadian roots behind and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where they signed with Word Records. Downhere has since gone on to win multiple Juno Awards, Covenant Awards and a Dove Award. They have released 10 albums, including On the Altar of Love.
Solo career 2011–present
In September 2011, Martel entered a competition to join Roger Taylor, original drummer for the rock band Queen, on-stage for the Queen Extravaganza Live Tour with a video of Martel singing along with the Queen classic "Somebody to Love". It generated more than one million views on YouTube after being up for only a few days and as of January 2017 is at more than 11,800,000 views. This led to an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a week following the release of the video. Martel went on to be one of the winners of the competition which led to a six-week tour with The Queen Extravaganza in 2012. The Queen Extravaganza continues to tour with Martel as of November 2015.
Martel released an EP, Prelude, on February 1, 2013 which includes "Up in the Air" and "8th Wonder". The EP was recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles with producer John Fields. His full-length debut, Impersonator, released on September 30, 2014.
On November, 18 2016 EP The Silent Night was released. It contains collection of Christmas songs.
Martel currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Crystal.