Track Listing: 01. Tie Your Mother Down
02. You're My Best Friend
03. Killer Queen
04. Hammer To Fall
05. Fat Bottomed Girls
06. Save Me
07. Ave Maria
08. Bohemian Rhapsody
09. One Vision
10. I Want It All
11. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
12. Another One Bites The Dust
13. Don't Stop Me Now
14. Love Of My Life
15. Radio Ga Ga
16. Somebody To Love
17. We Will Rock You
18. We Are The Champions
Recorded at Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany - February 18, 2020

Marc Martel continues to carve out for himself a place amid the Christmas-artist Pantheon with his latest offering of holiday music, The Christmas Collection, Vol. II. In 2019, the golden-voiced singer-songwriter and Freddie Mercury vocal twin, released what was obviously the first of at least two compilations of his holiday works: The Christmas Collection. Just 3 years later, he satisfies our yuletide musical cravings with a highly foreshadowed 18-track follow-up, containing all of his Christmas recordings since 2020, plus 5 brand new ones including Stevie Wonder’s “What Christmas Means To Me,” Chuck Berry’s classic “Run Run Rudolph,” a searingly groovy rendition of “The Grinch,” the cheerful “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year,” and Andrew Peterson’s haunting “Labor Of Love,” which depicts the bittersweet agony Mary underwent in the birth of Jesus.

The new album is chock-full of amazing duets with artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Arnel Pineda (Journey), blues guitar legend Joe Bonamassa, Leigh Nash (Sixpence None The Richer), Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Reese Wynans (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble), and rock guitar powerhouse Jared James Nichols. While Martel has always taken a don’t-fix-what-ain’t-broke approach to his arrangements — keeping as a prime directive the listener’s ability to sing along — each recording brings a thoughtfully surprising twist to classics, whether teamed up with producers like Ben Shive (Andrew Peterson, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith), Warren Huart (Aeorsmith, The Fray, Ace Frehley), Greg Collins (U2, Gwen Stefani, Kiss) or self-producing. Despite having recorded many of the world’s most popular Christmas songs early on in his now over 40-song journey, Martel has managed to make each new release more interesting than the last, while throwing in some lesser-known gems into his repertoire. If you’re already a fan of Martel, this one is a no-brainer. If you’re new to this music and just appreciate great singing, ditto.

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)

Marc Martel keeps you guessing at what he might take on next with his latest, Forte, a duets album with Italian opera singer Jonathan Cilia Faro. The five-track EP is a pop/classical crossover project aiming for a broader international audience than his already large Queen fanbase, showcasing a mix of styles and languages. Indeed five different languages are employed throughout the album, including English, Italian, French, Spanish and German. Martel, having dipped a toe in opera a few years ago with his viral video “The Mercurotti” (in which he shaved one side of his beard and performed the Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma” while emulating two of his favorite singers: Freddie Mercury and Luciano Pavarotti), is no stranger to singing in languages other than his native tongue. Not not to mention, he is already bilingual, having grown up in Québec.

The title, Forte, is a nod to the collaboration between the two artists, bringing their respective strengths to the project, leaning on one another’s expertise in very different musical worlds. “I’ve always wanted to do a version of “Barcelona,” but didn’t know anyone who could do justice to what Monserrat Caballé sang opposite Freddie Mercury. Jonathan’s classical training enables him to take on that challenge with a lot of grace. Never mind the huge undertaking of the orchestration, which also gave me the chance to enlist the incredible talents of David Hamilton, who I’ve wanted to team up with ever since meeting him as Michael W. Smith’s band leader on our 2019 Christmas tour.”

The project has given both artists the ability to record songs not possible on their own. Much like “Barcelona,” the international juggernaut “Miserere,” (which ignited Andrea Bocelli’s explosion onto the scene in the early 90s) was also written specifically for two styles of singing: opera and rock. “These massive songs that I’ve loved for so long are now possible to record and perform, with Marc’s help,” says Faro.

Queen fans will rejoice that of Forte’s five tracks, two are plucked from Freddie Mercury’s repertoire, including Brian May’s heart wrenching “Too Much Love Will Kill You.” And more traditional-minded music lovers will delight in Martel and Faro’s more impassioned version of “Nessun Dorma” in which Martel sings for the first time in German.

The track list ties up with a tribute to the strong women in Martel and Faro’s lives. “Non, je ne regrette rien,” (“No, I do not regret anything”) originally recorded by Edith Piaf, one of the very musical pillars of French culture.

Track Listing:

1. Miserere
2. Barcelona
3. Non, rien de rien
4. Too Much Love Will Kill You
5. Nessun Dorma