About Me
Sébastien Izambard(born March 7, 1973) is a member of the operatic pop musical quartet Il Divo. Izambard is the only member of the group who is not classically trained so, although he is a tenor in pitch, his voice is classified as vox populi. Before joining in Il Divo, he had a career as a pop musician in France, releasing a solo album called Libre and his song Si Tu Savais was ranked first in French Hit Charts. Besides a singer, Izambard is also an accomplished music composer and a piano and guitar player In Paris he has written music for many French artists. Izambard has said that he has two dreams while being in Il Divo: composing a song for the quartet and singing songs in French. In fact, Ancora, the second album of the band, contains two songs in French: "Je Crois En Toi" (a duet with Céline Dion) and "Pour Que Tu M’aimes Encore" (both originally by Céline, herself).In 2001, he performed with Johnny Halliday as a guest in the Olympia Theater, Paris. His music, greatly influenced by Jeff Buckley, earns him the acknowledgement of French and Canadian audiences.He recorded two videoclips and collaborated in solidarity projects like the Noël Ensemble, a record in which more than one hundred artists participated in order to raise funds for the fight against AIDS. As a member of Il Divo, he continues working with a charity called Assistance Médicale Toit du Monde (AMTM) that helps poor children, even organizing a fund raising raffle last September for AMTM among his fans to win one of his Armani suits.Izambard performed in February 2002 in Richard Cocciante’s musical “Le Petit Princeâ€, where he played the role of the Business Man. Before being a member of Il Divo he also performed in several theater plays as part of the group “La Troupeâ€.He was preparing his second album with Francis Madjouli and Lionel Florence when he got involved with Il Divo.In December of 2003, he became a member of the international musical quartet Il Divo along with Urs Bühler (Switzerland), David Miller (U.S.) and Carlos MarÃn (Spain).Besides their musical experience and prowess, the members of Il Divo are also recognized for their impeccable taste in fashion, dressing almost exclusively in Armani suits, along with their handsome looks. As a result of this, their first album, called Il Divo became a worldwide multiplatinum selling record when released in November 2004, entering Billboard at number four and selling five million copies worldwide in less than a year and knocking Robbie Williams from the number one spot in the charts. Their second album, Ancora, was released on November 7, 2005 in the United Kingdom. Il Divo's third album, Siempre, was released on November 21, 2006 in the United States and on November 27, 2006 internationally."In those days people were always telling me that I was hopeless and a bad student and that I would never amount to anything. Surprisingly, these criticisms didn't make me feel downhearted. On the contrary, they made me all the more determined to prove otherwise. Later on, when I realized my eyesight was too poor for me to be a pilot for a big company like Air France, I was upset, but tried to be philosophical. 'Okay', I thought, 'that dream's over. But I have an even greater passion in my life: music. If I work really hard at it, all will be well'. I worked so hard, in fact, that it became my whole life, so much so that sometimes I forgot to eat; the music became my food, my energy. I would sit there, eyes closed, dreaming of nothing but music for hours and hours. It became my everything, and it still is today. I've always thought that dreams are very important. People who find themselves stuck in a rut are in that position because they have no dreams. You have to have dreams. If you don't, you can't make them come true. I once read somewhere, 'Vie tes reves, mais ne reve pas ta vie'. I love the meaning of this - Live your dreams, but don't dream your life."
