On his mission to dethrone Michael Bublé as “Mr. Christmas,” Marc Martel once again adorns our holiday playlists with his newest release, Thank God It’s Christmas! The 6 song EP beautifully showcases his ever deepening repertoire of Christmas favorites, and his ever growing mastery of the genre. The album’s title itself expresses the universal jubilant relief of arriving at everyone’s favorite time of year (this year, possibly more than ever), by adding an exclamation mark to the title track “Thank God It’s Christmas,” the rock band Queen’s one and only Christmas offering. Martel’s vast fanbase of Queen aficionados will undoubtedly be thrilled at long last to dive into this emphatically gospel-infused reimagining, which comes off arguably more fitting than the early-80s synth laden original recording.

The crown jewel of this new collection is easily “The Christmas Waltz,” Martel’s repeat team-up with Amy Grant, after the duo secured the #1 spot at AC radio last year with “Silver Bells,” on which Michael W. Smith also appears. The track is a wonderfully executed throwback to the cozy, orchestral Sinatra/Crosby/Williams era, produced and orchestrated by Nashville based up-and-comer, Cody Fry. The track continues further into traditional sentimental territory with a light-hearted ukulele driven version of the Drifter’s iconic “White Christmas,” and cinematic versions of the heart string tuggers, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” and “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.” The one real surprise is the inclusion of a cover of Lauren Daigle’s much more recent debut smash “Light Of The World,” to which Martel’s powerhouse vocals are perfectly suited to.

Marc Martel, an artist who has fostered a steadily increasing presence in the realm of holiday music, has released his latest offering of Christmas favorites. An album four years in the making, The Christmas Collection features an all-star cast of collaborators (Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Jason Gray, Buddy Greene, Plumb, Scott Mulvahill, and Ron Block of Alison Krauss & Union Station), some of whom have graced the top of the Christmas charts on multiple occasions themselves.

This 21-track project includes Martel’s four AC Billboard Top 10s: “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”, “What Child Is This?”, “O Come, All Ye Faithful”, along with his majestic rendition of “The First Noel.” And brand new for Christmas 2019, Martel has teamed up with two of his own music heroes, Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, for a fresh take on “Silver Bells.” The rest of this comprehensive mix of sentimental classics and yuletide hymns beckons the listener on an expertly-paced journey from cozy fireside, to lively annual get-togethers, to the quiet hillsides of Bethlehem, covering an extremely satisfying gamut of all that is the most wonderful time of the year.

Track Listing:

1. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (feat. Plumb)
2. Silver Bells (feat. Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith) 3. The Christmas Song (feat. Scott Mullvahill)
3. All I Want For Christmas Is You 5. Christmastime Is Here 6. O Come All Ye Faithful (feat. Jason Gray)
4. What Child Is This? (feat. Ron Block of Alison Krauss & Union Station)
5. Mary, Did You Know? (feat. Buddy Greene)
6. Ave Maria 10. The First Noel 11. How Many Kings (feat. Downhere) 12. Little Drummer Boy 13. The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah”
7. Noisy Day 15. Silent Night 16. In The Bleak Midwinter 17. O Little Town of Bethlehem 18. O Come, Emmanuel 19. O Holy Night
8. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
9. How Many Kings (Reboot)

In 2011 a video Marc Martel created as an audition for Roger Taylor’s own Queen tribute act caught the world by surprise, and made him a viral household sensation. The short two-minute raw performance, seen by over 21 million on YouTube, was enough to thrust him onto the world stage, earning him not only the lead vocalist spot for the official Queen tribute show for 5 years, but also brought invitations to perform on the Ellen Degeneres Show, American Idol, at Abbey Road, national television commercials, video games, and appearances with the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra.

Although Martel’s vocal prowess first made news nearly a decade ago, his worldwide audience, video views, and fanbase numbers have exploded, since Queen’s resurgence from the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody." Martel has performed for hundreds of thousands of people over the last 9 years, and has played in over 35 countries, across 5 continents. In late 2018, he uploaded another raw performance of a Queen song, the behemoth “Bohemian Rhapsody,” only this time in its entirety, with the added challenge of accompanying himself on piano. The video was originally titled “Bohemian Rhapsody - One Take” to highlight the lack of any video edits, and the sheer feat of skill and will-power required to perform the song all the way through without egregious errors. To his own surprise, the video quickly outperformed his first viral video, now having earned over 37M visits just on YouTube. “What a wild ride it has been over the last few years. Who would have thought that a simple video created in my home studio all those years ago, would have led to millions of people around the world asking me to perform Queen’s music”, muses Martel as he describes the shock he experienced when his second video blew up, earning him accolades on an ever broader spectrum, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and even CNN.

Since then, Martel has followed up “BoRap” with a slew of other Queen hits like “Killer Queen,” “I Want To Break Free,” and the aching ballad Mercury penned for his partner, Mary Austin, “Love Of My Life,” all with the “One Take” formula. All told, the view count of this series of raw Queen song performances has reached over 74M.

Martel is now offering A One-Take Rhapsody as a one-stop collection of the audio taken from all of his “one take” Queen performances, mixed and mastered for audio-only consumption. The songs were selected not just based on their popularity among Queen fans, but each song’s ability to translate well in a stripped-down, acoustic setting. A big Queen fan himself, Martel hopes that people will discover some of the band’s lesser-known material through his own interpretation of the music, such as the gorgeously haunting “You Take My Breath Away.”

Recorded live with the Ultimate Queen Celebration on August 30th, 2019 at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand.

Marc Martel "Live in Auckland, New Zealand (featuring the UQC)

Executive produced by Marc Martel, Josh Petersen, and Paul Horton

Marc Martel - Lead Vocals, Piano, Acoustic Guitar Brandon Ethridge - Musical Director, Keys, BGVs Tristan Avakian - Electric Guitar, BGVs Mike Cohen - Bass, BGVs Jason Gianni - Drums, BGVs

All songs mixed by Richard Sprinkles All songs mastered by Jason Germain Album art and photography by Crystal K. Martel Management by Josh Petersen (Music City Management)

*In the past a very small number of people who have had problems with missing download tracks have discovered there is an issue with with the "Windows's native zip file handler". If that is an issue, you will want to open it in 7-zip instead! Most people have no issues, especially those with Macs. Also Apple does not allow non-tunes files to download to your mobile phone, so you will have to download on your laptop or desktop and drag the album into your iTunes folder!

This album was recorded live at the High Watt in Nashville, TN on March 28th, 2016