Il DIVO will be celebrating 15 years as the world’s leading classical crossover group in style when they bring next month’s Lytham Festival to a close in spectacular style at the Last Night of the Proms event.

The quartet of Urs Buhler, Carlos Marin, Sébastien Izambard and David Miller were the first to combine classical and popular music resulting in worldwide sales to date in excess of 30 million albums.

They recently released their 10th studio album, Timeless, which reworks popular songs ranging from Angels to Love Me Tender.

But both David and Sebastian agree, at the outset they never envisaged having such prolonged success.

“I don’t think that any of us ever expected that we would be part of something like this,” said classically trained David. “We had out own very specific trajectories that we were on as solo artists.”

Sebastien, who came to the group from a successful pop career in his native France, added: “It was like an arranged marriage – a very unstable arranged marriage in the beginning. But now we have a very durable., strong marriage.

“Starting out it was a bit like a blind date. It was interesting because our personalities and our backgrounds were so different.”

For many groups having such diverse backgrounds may have proved a disaster but Sebastien believes it’s an integral part of Il Divo’s success.

“I think it gives the band a force because we utilise our differences to make it something more powerful,” he said.

David added: “I think you need creative tension to bring the best out of each other. As an artist you have ideas that you want to bring to the world but when you come into a group there is a certain amount of compromise.”

“You have to put aside your own ego in order to co-operate,” said Sebastien “It’s like the United Nations. People just have to say ‘we have to get on with this’ or the whole thing can fall apart.”

Even after 15 years together, it’s clear that all four members of Il Divo have retained their own identities.

“We never think as one; we never do that,” laughed Sebastien. “We have so many different ideas; that is one of the great strengths of what we do. It’s when you bring all these ideas together that makes the whole thing work.”

For the Lytham Festival, Il Divo will be joined by special guest West End and TV star Martine McCutcheon and accompanied by the Heart of England Orchestra.

“We do love playing the traditional venues,” said David, “but especially with the new album which is a grand salute to some of the most iconic songs of the 20th and 21st century so far, to be able to perform them in an outdoor setting will just be such a great complement to the music and the atmosphere that we are trying to create.

“We’re very excited to come to Lytham.”

Although Lytham Green will make a spectacular setting for the show, it’s unlikely Il Divo will fully appreciate it on stage.

“Once we are up there, we are in the show and in that musical universe,” said David.”We might be able to enjoy the setting before we go on stage.”

Il Divo headline the Last Night of the Lytham Proms on Sunday, July 22. The festival runs from Wednesday, July 18 with headliners including Steps. Nile Rodgers and Chic, George Ezra and Ibiza Classics. Details from www.lythamfestival.com