Condensed from Billboard:

GLOBAL MUSIC PULSEKEN STEWART

IRELAND: The biggest domestic record of 1997 for EMI Ireland, and a No. 1 hit for the past severalweeks on the country’s album charts, is the latest collection from Dustin, the conceited yet endearingsinging turkey. "Faith Of Our Feathers" on EMI’s Lime Records has sold more than 85,000 units in amarket where sales of 15,000 copies qualify for platinum certification. It brings the cumulative salesof Dustin’s three albums to 250,000 copies.

"Dustin is a children’s television [RTE] character who has broken barriers in terms of popularity and appeal," explains Darren Smith, media manager at EMI Ireland, describing Dustin’s zany parodiesof hits. "He’s anarchic. A lot of his jokes would go over the kids’ heads, but it’s just great fun."

U2 manager Paul McGuinness appeared in a Dustin video, and among the acts who have granted permission for parodies of their songs are U2, Queen, Boyzone, and Bob Geldof, whose revival of"Rat Trap" with Dustin topped the Irish singles chart.

These days, there are few refusals, although the Scorpions declined to allow "Winds Of Change" to be performed by this turkey.

Dustin is joined on "Faith Of Our Feathers" by a number of guest artists, including Joe Dolan ("You’reSuch A Good Looking Woman"), Ronan Keating of Boyzone ("With A Little Help From My Friends"),Derval Kirwan of the BBC Television hit "Ballykissangel" ("Fairytale Of New York"), Linda Martin ("Well, Did You Ever?"), and the new Irish girl band Chill ("We Are Family").

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