HUNKY classical pop combo Il Divo will be setting pulses racing on Sunday night as they bring their Amor and Pasion tour to the UK to Bournemouth.

Carlos, Urs, David and Seb will be performing songs off last year’s album, Amor & Pasion, alongside all of their biggest hits at the BIC on Sunday.

Their recent album was Il Divo’s seventh studio album – and their most ambitious yet.

The flavours and sultry rhythms of Spain and Cuba, Argentina and Mexico give a nod to the quartet’s beginnings, whilst marking an exciting new chapter in their career.

“In the studio, singing every track, I really wanted to dance. Corny as it sounds, I love every one of these songs. We are really excited about taking Amor & Pasion and this incredible music on the road, when we embark on our fifth world tour in 2016. Maybe we will finally get to dance!” says Sebastian of Il Divo.

They’re not exactly known for busting a move, but Il Divo’s Sebastien Izambard is hoping to throw some shapes on the BIC stage when the group return to Bournemouth.

“Corny as it sounds, I love every one of these songs. We are really excited about taking Amor & Pasión and this incredible music on the road, when we embark on our fifth world tour.”

Urs Buhler, Sebastien Izambard, Carlos Marin and David Miller were first brought together by music mogul Simon Cowell, in 2003.

The idea behind Il Divo came when Cowell, inspired after listening to the Three Tenors, decided to form a multinational quartet of talented young singers.

None of them suspected what a monumental impact their union would have.

Under Cowell’s mentorship, the band spearheaded an entirely new musical genre with their ground-breaking debut album in 2004.

At their outset, Il Divo were four strangers of different nationalities, each with a distinguished but very different musical background. American tenor, David was a conservatory-trained opera singer, whose performance in Baz Luhrman’s La Boheme on Broadway had been critically acclaimed.

Baritone, Carlos had been a child vocal prodigy – the ‘Little Caruso’ – recording his first album aged eight, with a career spanning stage and opera.

Accomplished tenor, Urs, from Switzerland, played violin, clarinet, piano, guitar and drums and had even fronted a heavy metal band as a teenager, before choosing a classical route.

Sebastien was a talented singer-songwriter, whose single Si Tu Savais had reached number one in the French charts.

Initially, all they shared was their passion for their music, together with a certain curiosity at having been recruited into the quartet. But when they sang together, something exceptional happened.

“I never thought we would be successful,” says Carlos.

“I thought maybe we would do one record and then I would go back to my opera or my musical theatre or whatever.”

Twelve years, and four world tours later, Il Divo have performed in front of the world’s great and good - from President Barack Obama to Her Majesty the Queen.

They have shared microphones with fellow superstars from Barbara Streisand to Celine Dion and their sell-out concerts have been attended by Hollywood icons including Tom Hanks and Robert De Niro.

Carlos is delighted to admit he was wrong. “You stop, and you think: Wow! We’ve preformed for royalty and presidents. Gorbachev came to meet us – Obama, Bush.

It was 2013, when the quartet last appeared in Bournemouth when they made two appearances that year at the BIC.

The first was with mezza soprano Katherine Jenkins when they performed together as part of a special co-headline tour.

While they had crossed paths at various musical events and TV shows before, they had never actually taken to the public stage together.

The memorable show saw both artists perform with a full orchestra and their own unique classical interpretations of popular songs, whilst also duetting together for the very first time.

Sebastien Izambard told the Bournemouth Daily Echo at the time: “We’ve long been friends with Katherine, and as we looked to stage a tour around our Greatest Hits release, we thought what better way to approach it than to offer our fans the ultimate evening of classical crossover music by inviting Katherine to perform and also join us on some brand new duets. We hope we can make some wonderful music together.”

Katherine Jenkins added: “Having known the boys for such a long a time it’s great to finally be working on such an exciting project together.”

The next date in 2013 saw the group touring their sixth studio album, A Musical Affair.

It was their first compilation of songs inspired by Broadway shows such as Phantom of the Opera, Carousel and West Side Story and featured stellar duet partners Barbra Streisand, Kristin Chenoweth, Nicole Scherzinger, Heather Headley and Michael Ball.

The quartet members are no strangers to musical theatre as Carlos was cast as Marius in Les Misérables when the show premiered in Spain in 1993, while David played Rodolfo in Broadway’s La Bohème in 2003, which subsequently garnered seven Tony nominations.

Il Divo have released seven albums to date. After their platinum eponymous debut, subsequent albums – Ancora (2005), Siempre (2006), The Promise (2008) and Wicked Game (2011) built on the group’s winning combination of virtuoso and mass appeal. Their 2013 recording, A Musical Affair, was their celebration of Broadway and West End classics.

Last year saw the release of Amor & Pasion, which contains songs only in Spanish. This was a first for the international group to devote an entire album to songs in this language.

Still classed as the original and most successful classical cross over group of all time Il Divo will be performing new tracks for their fans as well as their much loved greatest hits.

n For more information or tickets call 0844 576 3000 or visit bhlivetickets.co.uk