Il Divo

Il Divo () is a multi-national classical crossover vocal group. The male quartet originated in the United Kingdom in December 2003, bringing together singers Urs Bühler (Switzerland), Carlos Marín (Spain), David Miller (United States), and Sébastien Izambard (France). The group was created and promoted by music producer Simon Cowell for the label Syco Music (a subsidiary of Sony Music). Although it is unclear how the group's name came about, ""Il Divo" is translated from Italian as "divine performer"."
As of 2018, the group has released ten albums: "Il Divo" (2004), "Ancora" (2005), "Siempre" (2006), "The Promise" (2008), "Wicked Game" (2011), "A Musical Affair" (2013), "Amor & Pasión" (2015) and Timeless (2018); a compilation album "The Greatest Hits" (2012); special Christmas songs album "The Christmas Collection" (2005). Two other albums – "" (2009) and "Live in Japan" (2014) – presented recordings of live concerts. Additionally, they have collaborated with other artists.
Since its inception, "Il Divo" has enjoyed success worldwide, selling well over 30 million copies of its albums worldwide. With 160 certified gold and platinum hits in 35 countries, it pioneered the genre of operatic pop, or "popera", in classical crossover music.
"Il Divo's" live concerts sold over two million concert tickets worldwide just from their first four albums. In their first world tour, concerts in 69 cities in 18 countries were sold out.
Members.
"Il Divo" is composed of four singers, three of whom are classically trained, from four countries: German-born Spanish baritone Carlos Marín (b. October 13, 1968), two classically trained tenors Swiss Urs Bühler (b. July 19, 1971) and American David Miller, (b. April 14, 1973), and French pop singer-songwriter Sébastien Izambard (b. March 7, 1973).
Musical career.
Conception and name.
The idea behind "Il Divo" came when Simon Cowell, inspired after listening to the Three Tenors, decided to form a multinational quartet of talented young singers to recreate the quality of Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. Cowell conducted a worldwide search for young singers who were willing to embark on the project, a search that lasted nearly three years, from 21 January 2001 until 16 December 2003, when the fourth member, American tenor David Miller, was signed. Prior to "Il Divo", Miller and his European counterparts Spanish baritone, Carlos Marín, Swiss tenor Urs Bühler and French pop singer, Sébastien Izambard were each enjoying moderate success in their own right.
Career.
First decade: 2004–2014.
Release.
The first album "Il Divo", was recorded in February 2004 in Sweden, with the Quiz and Larossi, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger producers, and in Rockstone Studios in the UK with producer Steve Mac, with record label Syco Music.
The album was released on 1 November 2004 in just three countries: the UK, Norway and Ireland. In the first weeks they had already achieved double platinum in Norway and Ireland and made history in the UK when "Regresa a mí" became the first Spanish-language song to reach No.1 on the British chart. On 19 April 2005 the album was released in the United States, Spain and elsewhere.
In December 2004, as their public debut and to promote their first studio material, they gave their first concert at Gotham Hall in New York, performing five songs from the album live. This concert was made into a film that became the group's first DVD release, entitled "Live at Gotham Hall".
"Il Divo" was launched in fall 2004 with the single ""Regresa a mí"," debuting with the first album of the same name. They filmed the music video for the song in Slovenia. The video, which is fictionalised, shows the members leaving their various occupations and previous lives to become one group.
"Il Divo" debuted with "Regresa a mí", which thus became a worldwide success in 2004. Singing primarily in Spanish, English, Italian, and French,
On 23 May 2005, they released the DVD ""Mama", which features the second official video of the song "Mama" recorded in the city of Tropea, Italy, exclusive footage from the making of the video, a live recording of Mama live in New York, and a photo gallery.
On 24 January 2006, Sony BMG released the DVD "Encore""; a concert at the Roman Theatre in Mérida, Spain, recorded on 7 October 2005, a documentary containing interviews with the artists and images of casting made to form the group.;
On 25 October 2005 they released, in just seven countries (United States, Canada, Austria, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland), a studio album titled "The Christmas Collection".
7 November 2005 saw the European release of Il Divo's second studio album, ""Ancora". In the United States and Latin America it was released on 24 January 2006. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release in the United States.
On 9 June 2006, Il Divo gave a live performance of the official 2006 FIFA World Cup song, "The Time of Our Lives", with R&B singer Toni Braxton, at half-time during the opening match between the Germany and the Costa Rica, and again a month later at the closing ceremony on 9 July. The song is available exclusively on the "Voices from the FIFA World Cup" compilation album and on the European reissue of Braxton's album "Libra" but not on any "Il Divo" album.
In late 2006, they released another DVD "Il Divo - Live at the Greek", a recording of their concert in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, directed by Lawrence Johnson 
Il Divo have been on several world tours and have received 50 gold and platinum discs. Their last tour in 2014 covered five continents and over 33 countries. Having just completed a six-month tour of America, Australia, and Europe, "Il Divo" then participated in all 20 concerts by Barbra Streisand in her as her special guests. "Streisand: The Tour with Il Divo" was ranked second for all tours during 2006, generating $92.5 million in gross sales. They also accompanied her in her Europe concerts.
After the release of "Ancora", the group spent almost half their time as the bestselling act in Europe, building on the success they achieved with their first self-titled album. Throughout the Christmas period in 2006, "Il Divo" held the top spot in the list of best-selling albums.
"Il Divo" was named the Most Multinational UK No.1 Album Group in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
Success and consecration.
On 27 November 2006 they released their third studio album, recorded during their previous world tour, which was titled "Siempre"" with Steve Mac, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger in production.
On 16 January 2007, "Il Divo" began a tour to promote their fourth album, "Siempre", in Asia, Australia and then passing first by touring Latin America Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela in seven concerts that were a resounding success. On 7 November 2006 the group released their first compilation, "Il Divo Collezione", a box with three CDs and a DVD that includes three studio albums: "Il Divo", "Ancora" to which is added the song "The Time of Our Lives" and "The Christmas Collection" DVD and "Encore" along with a 20-page booklet with rare photos and a poster of each member of the quartet signed and dedicated to their fans.
On 21 November 2006 Il Divo released the ""Live at the Greek Theater" DVD featuring the live concert held on 22 June 2006 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles as part of the 2006 world tour. This recording includes all the songs that had established the group's popularity and an unedited version of the famous song "Somewhere"".
"Il Divo" became the most successful international group in the recent history of classical crossover music, selling over 20 million records in their first five years.
The group has enjoyed international popularity. The quartet was awarded over 150 gold and platinum discs in 33 countries in their first four albums and reached # 1 on 50 album charts worldwide, including for the 1 US debut of "Ancora", the only classical crossover album has topped the Billboard 200.
Their first album, the debut album by a British group, entered the top lists of the United States and with the album "The Promise" broke the American record sales in the first week.
"Il Divo" also began performing at concert venues around the world with great success. They sold more than two million tickets to the concerts for their first four albums. Their first world tour, which sold out, included dates in 69 cities and 18 countries, and was followed by a more extensive tour in 2007 in which the group received standing ovations continuously in 30 countries.
On 11 November 2008 the group released their fourth album, "The Promise"", produced by Steve Mac. The presentation of the album was held at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya on 30 October, where "Il Divo" performed at the end of dinner five songs from the new album accompanied by an orchestra of 50 musicians.
8 November 2008 saw the release of the DVD "At the Coliseum". "Il Divo" concert at the Roman Colosseum in Pula, Croatia, which includes a 30-minute in-depth interview titled "The Promise, Il Divo in conversation".
On 12 December 2008, "Il Divo" performed at the final of Idol 2008 in the Stockholm Globe Arena. 20 January 2009 they performed at Purple Heart Inauguration Ball in Washington DC for President of the United States Barack Obama.
Il Divo's 2009 tour "An Evening with Il Divo" was the geographically extensive in the world, with more than 130 dates across six continents, 31 countries and 81 cities. This earned them the "Billboard Breakthrough Award" for the highest-grossing tour of the year.
On 1 December 2009 the first live album of "Il Divo" is public, a set of CD + DVD recorded at the Palau Sant Jordi concert "An Evening with Il Divo: Live in Barcelona". The DVD + CD includes two new songs in the repertoire of Il Divo "Bridge Over Trouble Water", the classic Simon & Garfunkel, and "The Impossible Dream" from the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha. The live album is a journey through the songs of their first five studio albums that debuted at No.1 in nine countries, including Spain, and sold over three million copies in just two months, 500,000 of them in UK establishing be a concert tour and reference for the group.
They ended 2009 with their first Christmas special intimate show, entitled "Celebrate Christmas with Il Divo", which included a traditional repertoire of favourite festive songs with an orchestra and special guests in the United Kingdom, USA and Canada.
They started with two concerts at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 7 and 8 December with guest artists; violinist Vanessa-Mae and Camilla Kerslake, ending in the United States offering six more concerts.
19 October 2010, Sony Music released the DVD "The Yule Log: The Christmas Collection" offering a choice of three nativity scenes with "Il Divo", after "Celebrate Christmas with Il Divo" tour.
Artist of the Decade.
On 11 May 2011 the group was invited to the Classic Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London to receive the award for "Artist of the Decade".
The award recognised the massive impact the operatic group had had in the classical genre, having sold over 25 million albums worldwide between 2004 and 2011.
8 November 2011, published the fifth album "Wicked Game", three years after the release of their previous album. The album was produced by Per Magnusson and David Kreuger with the additional collaboration of Richard "Biff" Stannard.
The tour to promote the album "Wicked Game" throughout the entire 2012, led them to visit more than 130 cities in countries like Britain, Spain, South Africa, Australia, United States, Japan, Mexico and London. The creative director of the concerts the tour was Biran Burke, head of the most important shows of the city of Las Vegas.
During the concerts, "Il Divo" was accompanied by the orchestra in each city they visited.
During the direct of the tour, the song "Senza Parole" was interpreted with a new different from that published in the studio album version as Sébastien sang the chorus, adding extra song's original lyrics: ""(..) senza one lacrima, vedrai vedrai (fa male ma che vedrai passerà) capirai (one giorno che anche your t'innamorerai) (..)".
On 20 December 2011, in Paraguay, the quartet gave a concert for more people than had ever been in the Defensores del Chaco stadium for 33,900 people, closing the Bicentenary of the Independence of Paraguay.
On 13 May 2012 "Il Divo" performed the song "Caruso"" during the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II at Windsor for the entire royal family and Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
On 27 July 2012, "Il Divo" performed at the Olympic torch handover party and official closing ceremony in the 2012 Summer Olympicsin London.
The DVD ""Live in London", published in mid-2011. A 90-minute DVD "Il Divo" concert at the London Coliseum with extras in a documentary recording "Wicked Game" in their promotional tours in rehearsals for the concert and evening of the show, recorded in the Coliseum Theatre in London on 2 August 2011.
"Il Divo & Orchestra in Concert World Tour" was a worldwide tour of the six continents between May and September 2012. In each concert on the tour was featured selections of songs from the album "Wicked Game", and other topics of his previous albums chosen by his followers/as. The show was designed by creative director Brian Burke, who says that "Il Divo is the perfect modern fusion of opera, theater and concert. It is a privilege as a director to create a visual landscape inviting the audience on a theatrical journey of their music", along with producer AEG Live.
On 6 September 2012, it was announced that "Il Divo" would release a "The Greatest Hits" album. The album was produced by Alberto Quintero and featured songs spanning "Il Divo's" successful eight-year career to date, as well as four new songs including "My Heart Will Go On", "I Will Always Love You", "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Alone".
"Il Divo" on Broadway.
5 November 2013 saw the release of the group's sixth album, "A Musical Affair", produced and arranged by Alberto Quintero and featuring a distinctive, romantic and emotional interpretation of classical music. The songs would feature arrangements tailored to their voices. To promote the album, they made a series of six unique concerts at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway from 7 to 13 November 2013, called "Il Divo – A Musical Affair: The Greatest Songs of Broadway".
The world tour began in Japan in February 2014 and travelled around the world, culminating on 1 November 2014 at The O2 Arena in Greenwich, London.
On 19 July 2014, as part of their tour, "Il Divo" sold out Edinburgh Castle, giving a concert featuring the hymn "Amazing Grace"".
24 November 2014 a special edition of the sixth album "A Musical Affair. French version" produced and arranged by Alberto Quintero with new songs with French singers, partially or fully sung in French.
1 December 2014, second album is public quartet live, a set of CD + DVD of the concert "Live in Japan", which contains a show tour "A Musical Affair" filmed at the Nippon Budokan Theater in Tokyo 11 March 2014. The Japanese version includes the songs "Will Flowers Bloom" and "Furusato".
Today: 2015 – Present.
In 2014, on the 10th anniversary of the publication of thie first album they had sold over 28 million albums worldwide, achieving more than 50 number one sales and receiving 160 gold records and platinum in over 33 countries.
On 23 March 2015, it was announced that "Il Divo" was the winner of the 2015 Silver Clef Award, giving them the coveted "Classic PPL" Nordoff Robbins Classical Award. The gala award ceremony took place on 3 July at the Grosvenor House, a five-star hotel in London.
Reinventing "Il Divo".
During the first decade of the group, in its first six studio albums published until 2014 (""Il Divo", "Ancora", "Siempre", "The Promise", "Wicked Game" and "A Musical Affair") "Il Divo" had interpreted lyrical and classical music genre fused with pop, ballads, church music, folk music or the musical genre songs. But the genre of bolero has never been done by them. Therefore their seventh studio album will consist of mainly this genre.
Through Syco Music, the 6 November 2015 in Europa, 27 November in America and 25 October in Japan, is released seventh studio album "Amor & Pasión" ("love and passion"), produced by Colombian Julio Reyes Copello and mixed by Alberto Quintero, of work spanning a century of traditional tangos, smouldering boleros and classic mambos. The flavours and sultry rhythms of Spain and Cuba, Argentina and Mexico give a nod to the quartet's beginnings. Previously, in July 2015, they initiated the photographic campaign for his eighth album and recording a new video on the streets of the town of Tepoztlan in Mexico, under the production of "CTT Exp & Rentals".
To promote the album, a month before its release, the song "Por una cabeza"" was played on the radio around the world, including on BBC Radio 2 in the UK.
On 21 October, "Il Divo" performed the first public appearance to promote the sixth album in the program "Despierta America", the US network Univision, from Miami, playing his first single "Si Voy A Perderte (Don't Wanna Lose You)". Then, they continue their advocacy for land in Japan, performing the song "Bésame mucho". They started the month of November in London, where the 2nd acted "Music Industry Trusts Award".
With its publication, the album "Love & passion" debuts in the first week at No. 1 on the "Latin Albums Chart" list, with 5 thousand copies sold in America in the first week, according to the magazine "Billboard". In Spain, debuted in first week of release, in the tenth position Spanish sales of "Top 100 Álbumes".
Artistic.
Registration Voices.
The vocal tone and voice tessitura is different between each member of "Il Divo", who all have their own individual approaches to opera; these are determined by the classical crossover musical training, vocal traits and physiology of each.
David and Urs, who are tenors, and Carlos, the baritone of the group, all have long careers in the world of opera and classical music, beginning with early vocal training. In contrast, Sébastien had not had any prior professional musical training (he was self-taught), and has a tenor voice, which the group classed as "vox populi" due to his pop tone.
Styling.
Besides music, the members of "Il Divo" are also known for their flawless, refined and elegant appearance, wearing almost exclusively suits by Giorgio Armani;"Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani" and "Armani Collezioni", and costumes and accessories: William Hunt, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford and Gucci.
Musical style.
Creating "Il Divo" created a revolution within the pure genre of opera because their musical combination of opera singing and "classical music" (opera), with themes of different genres, including Latin, folk, ballads, church music, bolero and pop.
But his lyrical voices kept playing emblematic songs, it is not synonymous with opera, nor pop. There is talk of an intermediate term, but not of a merger between the two, since such lines that can not be merged, as David describes himself:
So we talk about a new invention of musical style, hand own quartet, called " Opera-Pop " o "Pópera", classified in the genre of contemporary music-
Multilingual.
The quartet records their songs in several languages Spanish "("Regresa A Mi", "Hasta Mi Final", "La Vida Sin Amor")", English "("Mama", "Amazing Grace", "Don't Cry For Me Argentina")", Italian "("Senza Parole", "Passera", "Notte Di Luce")", French "("Pour Que Tu M'Aimes Encore," "Le Temps des Cathedrales")", one in Latin "("Panis Angelicus")" and a few in Portuguese("Volta Pra Mim") and Japanese "("Furusato")". Some songs incorporate more than one language in the same song: "The Man You Love" (Spanish & English), "Ave Maria" (Italian & Latin), "I Believe In You" (English & French) are recorded this way; whereas others are recorded in a single language, but sung live in two languages: "She" (Italian & English) and "Bring Him Home" (English & Spanish).
Most of the songs that they cover are reinterpreted from English and translated into the Spanish language, as they themselves say that "Spanish is the language of Romanticism".
Other activities.
Philanthropy.
On 25 April 2007, Il Divo performed on "American Idol" in one of the "Idol Gives Back" episodes, which raised money for children in the US and Africa. For every vote cast during that show, Idol sponsors Coca-Cola, AT&T, and others donated money to "Charity Projects Entertainment Fund" (CPEF) and other groups such as "Save the Children" and "America's Second Harvest".
In 2011, they recorded the carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to raise money for the organisation Save the Children.
"Il Divo" is related indirectly in terms of sponsorship and help with the French NGO "SMTA Assistance Médicale Toit du Monde" since 2005, of which Sébastien is the international official sponsor, and with "Sanfilippo Children's Foundation" in which Sébastien is the global ambassador.
Between 20–30 September 2015, David Miller and Urs Bühler participated in a motorbike ride for charity. They planned to ride across America on a 2800-mile journey from Miami to LA to raise funds for the brilliant Nordoff Robbins music therapy charity.