Urs Bühler Abbado. Before joining Il Divo, he was mainly based in the Netherlands, singing oratorios and performing with the Netherlands Opera Gezelschap (NOG). Despite many performances there are only a handful of recordings available of him before Il Divo. In December 2003, Urs became a member of the international musical quartet Il Divo along with Carlos Marín (Spain), Sébastien Izambard (France), and David Miller (United States). He had an informal first audition with the group's creator, Simon Cowell. In Cowell's office, he simply asked Urs to sing for him unaccompanied. Impressed by Buhler's tenor voice, Cowell offered him a place in
Metro Vocal Group Barbershop and Doo-wop music. Their first contract was aboard Celebrity Cruises Mercury. After finishing the Mercury contract, Metro signed an additional contract aboard Celebrity Cruises Century for its inaugural European cruise. In 2000, the group was asked to be a part of the opening crew for the inaugural voyage of Celebrity Cruises Millennium. It was on board the Millennium where the group would find a distinct sound, adopting more of a pop rock genre, and rename themselves Metro Vocal Group. Shortly thereafter, Metro Vocal Group was hired as part of the opening crew for the Celebrity Cruises Summit's inaugural voyage.