Having sold more than 22 million albums worldwide, Il Divo [ tickets ] has had some pretty fabulous opportunities. Formed by Simon Cowell five years ago, the classically influenced singing group has sung with Barbra Streisand and met some of the biggest names in Hollywood. And, on a day's notice, the group flew overseas to entertain Oprah Winfrey's audience. But nothing compares to meeting a controversial president and his future cabinet-member wife.

"I remember when we were at the Madison Square Garden and suddenly, while we were there, we met Steven Spielberg, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino," said baritone Carlos Marin of Spain. "Then suddenly, we were in our dressing room and someone knocked on the door--it was Hillary Clinton asking for an autograph. Then there was also Bill Clinton next to her. He was just saying, 'We should make a tour with you guys and have myself playing the saxophone.' It was really, really funny."

Il Divo--which also includes American tenor David Miller, French pop singer Sebastien Izambard and Swiss tenor Urs Buhler--will have more chance encounters, presumably, when the singers tour the world this year in support of their latest album "The Promise."

During a promotional stop in New York, Marin and Buhler spoke to LiveDaily via telephone about working with Cowell, "The Promise," and the group members' undeniable chemistry.

LiveDaily: Tell me what it's like to work with Simon Cowell. How much say does he actually have in the group now?

Urs Buhler: First of all, we're not really working very much with Simon Cowell. It was his idea originally. He went through all the effort five years ago to do the auditions in all the countries around the world to find the four of us and to [find] the first material for the first album. Then, he just put us in the studio with loads of different producers. Then we all together kind of created the sound of Il Divo and the image of Il Divo. Since then, he's literally only involved in A&R-ing and executive-producing the albums--which means, he and we together look for the songs that are going to go on the next album. That's a long process, actually. It starts the moment you release an album; you start thinking of songs for the next one. So everyone comes up with a huge list. Then we sit together, we'll discuss, we'll listen to demos and stuff, we'll make a decision for 15 to 20 tracks that we want to take into the studio and record. Once we come out of the studio with these recordings, he will listen to it and he will ask for certain changes--key changes, arrangements. He will have a strong word in the decision of what tracks actually go on the album. But that's it. We see him once or twice a year.

It must be tough to choose which songs you would like to have on the album.

UB: Everybody has different opinions and different tastes. There's so much great stuff out there that each individual would like to record. You've just got to be sensible about everything. When we sit together, it's the four of us, it's Simon, it's people from management, probably other people from the record company. Of course, you get your opinions from your friends and family and everyone, as well. You just have to be sensible about it and agree on things. We're very, very happy and very proud of this album, with this song choice we've done.

What was it like when the group originally formed? How were you able to create the chemistry you have now?

UB: It is something that has grown over the last five years. In the beginning, it was fairly difficult because David is the only native English speaker. For us, it was just communicating in foreign languages all the time, which caused a lot of translational gaps. Then also, the fact was we did not know each other at all. We met for the first time two days before we went into the studio and started recording the first song. We had to get to know each other over all this time and learn how to blend our voices and our personalities together, and use our differences to make the whole thing stronger. It was a long, long learning process. What's been crucial for this was when we've taken a few month off after finishing last year's world tour, because for the first time in five years, it's given us the possibility to take a step back and reflect on what we've been doing so far and appreciate the success we've had and the camaraderie we have in the group, and how well we love and how passionate we are for the thing we do: making music together. I think that has made us [a] much stronger unit.

How do you feel this album fits in with your catalog?

Carlos Marin: It fits perfectly. After having a year off, to try to bring new songs, not obvious songs--like, for example, "Hallelujah (Aleluya)," you have the Jeff Buckley version, and "Power of Love (La Fuerza Mayor)," we are the only band in the world, I must say, that the original writer gave us the permission to sing it in another language, besides English. I think it goes really well with the catalog. It was a good surprise for our fans.

What was the most difficult song to translate into your style?