Classical foursome Il Divo celebrate their 20th anniversary and pay tribute to their beloved colleague Carlos Marin who died from Covid
WORDS: MITYA UNDERWOOD PHOTOS: NATALIE SCHILLER, GETTY IMAGES, LARRY MARANO/REX/ SHUTTERSTOCK, SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
IN FINE VOICE
It’s been 20 years since Simon Cowell set out on a mission to put together his own popular version of The Three Tenors and “operatic boy band” Il Divo were the result. His team at what was then Syco Music scoured music halls around the world before bringing together California native David Miller, Frenchman Sébastien Izambard, Urs Bühler from Sweden, and the late Carlos Marin, from Spain.
As the original Il Divo, the foursome pioneered a new classical-meets-pop sound, earning a No1 in the UK charts with their first release, followed by a further 30 million album sales worldwide.
But at the very beginning, as they exclusively tell OK!, even they didn’t really know what was being asked of them. “The four of us were put in a room by Simon and he said, ‘These are the songs I want, what can you do with them?’” David, 50, says. “It took us four months to figure out what our sound was, what our dynamic was, and what the point of Il Divo was in this emerging genre called “classical crossover”. What did that even mean?
“We needed to figure out how our voices would blend, and how they translated to pop music. So we just took one song at a time and made it interesting. And when learnt that we find it interesting, we do a good job singing it, and when we do a good job, our audience, they enjoy it.”
The current line-up now includes Dallas-born Steven LaBrie, who turns 36 this week. Steven joined following the tragic death of original member Carlos in late 2021. Today, the foursome are chatting with us from their New York City hotel room on the launch day of their new album, XX: 20th Anniversary Album.
It’s an important and emotional release for the quartet, who last performed as their original line-up here in the UK in December 2021 on their Christmas tour. Tragically, Carlos, 53, fell ill after the first couple of shows and was admitted to hospital, where he was diagnosed with the Delta variant of Covid, before passing away just days later.
For the “brothers” as Sébastien calls them, it was a hugely traumatic experience and they admit that the death of Carlos hit them hard.
“Carlos is someone we spent 20 years with,” says Sébasti
