Simon Cowell has said he is “devastated” by the death of Il Divo singer Carlos Marín.
The music mogul, who signed Carlos and fellow singers David Miller, Sébastien Izambard and Urs Bühler to his Syco label in 2004, said he was finding it “so difficult” to find words after the Spanish baritone died at the age of 53.
The group announced Carlos’ death in a statement on Sunday, after which Simon posted a tribute on his social media accounts.
He wrote: “I am finding this so difficult to put into words how I feel right now. I am devastated Carlos Marin has passed away.
“He loved life. He loved performing and always had so much appreciation towards the fans who supported the group from day 1.
“Rest in peace Carlos. I will miss you,” he added.
Simon launched a search for singers to join a classical crossover group in 2001, before finally putting all four members together nearly three years later.
Il Divo released their self-titled debut album on Simon’s Syco label in November 2004, and have gone on to sell 30 million records over their 17-year career.
The group parted ways from Simon and his label in 2017, with Urs Bühler saying it “came to a natural end”, but described their former boss as an “old friend”.
“With Simon Cowell, he put us together, he had the idea, he made the investment at the beginning,” Urs told the Press Association in 2018. “And he was very heavily involved in the first three albums, but then I don’t know if it was due to his own career being incredibly busy, but his influence and involvement became less and less, and even with the last couple of albums we did with Syco, he was hardly involved.
“He basically just listened to the finished product, so now he’s an old friend. We are on very good terms, but it has been many years since we had an intense working relationship with him.”
Following the news of Carlos’ death, many other tributes poured in online...
In their statement, Il Divo said there would “never be another voice or spirit like Carlos”.
His cause of death has not been confirmed.
On Thursday, the group shared news that Carlos had been admitted to hospital and said they were “hoping and praying for a speedy recovery”.
He had been on stage performing with Il Divo earlier this month, though the rest of their December UK tour dates were later postponed by a year “due to illness”.