Hear It First! Queen Extravaganza Frontman Marc Martel Marches to His Own Drum on 'Ringo Starr'


a shot of Marc Martel's Somebody to Love audition
a shot of Marc Martel's Somebody to Love audition

Queen fans are surely familiar with Canadian rock belter Marc Martel. Three years ago, when the Freddie Mercury soundalike entered an online competition to front the official Queen tribute band the Queen Extravaganza, his audition of "Somebody to Love" went totally viral, racking up nearly 9 million YouTube views.

He got the job, of course.

But while Martel has enjoyed touring the world with the Queen Extravaganza and performing Queen songs on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and American Idol, he hasn't given up on releasing his own original music. With Martel's first solo album, cheekily titled Impersonator, coming out Sept. 30, Yahoo Music is excited to premiere a track from the release, which loosely namechecks not Freddie Mercury but another rock legend: "Ringo Starr."

Martel tells Yahoo that his album is called Impersonator because much of it deals with his internal struggle to not bite the hand that feeds him — i.e., the Queen Extravaganza — yet wanting to break out on his own and get away from the Freddie comparisons and the limitations of singing only cover songs.

While "Ringo Starr" traffics in a classic rock sound (think the Darkness and Muse, who are admittedly influenced by Queen), the song does help Martel make a name for himself as modern-day solo artist. If you like what you hear, click here to preorder Impersonator on iTunes.

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