At a small recording studio just outside Beirut, the five members of UTN-1 are preparing to shoot a music video. The director gives them a pep talk.

Director: "Don't worry about nothing. Do your job, and we will do our job. Ok?"

Hassan, Art, Nadeem, Akhled, and Shant get into position behind piano and microphones, and the shooting begins.

The song is called "Jamila," and it's the band's second music video. And it's their first song in Arabic. The band, which grew up listening to Michael Jackson and George Michael, usually sings in English. UTN1 formed in 1999. The five young men met through an ad on a radio station run by one of Saddam Hussein's sons. They recorded a few love songs in a Baghdad studio, including this one, called "Hey Girl."

But the radio station didn't broadcast Hey Girl. What DID make it to air embarrasses the band now: the "Saddam Birthday Song." It aired twice an hour for three days. Station managers promised them the "Saddam Song" would be a stepping stone toward success. But only one of their real songs ever aired - and just once. Hassan, UTN1's guitarist, says the band then turned to a friend for help.

Hassan: "We got introduced to guy, a friend used to go to his record shop, named Allan Aweeyah and he said to Alan listen to this song and Alan just listened to it and said, "I never expected there was such a band in Iraq."

Neither did the foreign press. After Baghdad fell in 2003, western journalists discovered the band. Several news organizations offered to take UTN1 to England....all expenses paid. But they had trouble getting passports and visas. After a year, the offers disappeared. By late 2004, violence forced three of the band members to flee Iraq. One of the singers, Shant, stayed behind. By chance, he met an American businessman interested in Iraqi music and he gave him a CD.

Shant: "I didn't tell him it was our CD, and he said ok, I'll listen. He came after three days asking for me, I went to him, and he said, "I want those guys!!!," and I said I'm one of those guys sir...And he was like, "Really? I didn't think you'd be singing like that!" So he was interested in the band, and told me to gather the guys and talk."

The businessman paid for the band to be reunited in Jordan. He wanted to fly them to England to make an album. But like many Iraqi refugees, they ran into visa problems. Shant remembers a consular officer at the British Embassy in Jordan challenging him.

Shant: "She said give me some of the vocal trainings and I was like, "Now?" She said yes now. And I was like "There's people sitting here, you sure?" and then I sang and people started laughing.

Art: "They were thinking...."Give him a visa and let him go...we don't want to hear his voice anymore!!!"

Ultimately, they did get visas to England that day. The band flew to London and began a pop-star grooming routine with singing lessons, fashion lessons, and personal trainers. Last year, UTN1 recorded an album and earlier this month, the single "While We Can," made its debut on Lebanese radio and music video stations.

Yes, they're still a boy band, but an Iraqi one. Their video shows scenes of young boys scrambling through what look like the streets of Baghdad, toting makeshift wooden rifles. Still, the message is familiar: "love one another if you want to make a change." The members of UTN1 are back in Lebanon now, recording more songs and finishing their latest video. They plan to release their first album in the US and Europe early next year.

For the World, I'm Ben Gilbert in Beirut.