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Chris de Burgh celebrates a remarkable and rare career milestone during 2024; half a century as a recording artist. Yet when he signed his first recording contract in 1974 and his debut album, Far Beyond These Castle Walls, was released by A&M Records that same year, Chris did not look beyond the immediate future. "As I held a copy of that record in my hands, I had absolutely no idea that this would even go any further," he recalls. "I was incredibly naive about the music business but I was full of hope and dreams and, spectacularly, my dreams not only came true, they came truer than true. I had no concept that I was going to last as long as this. Fifty years? Wow!" Over the course of five decades, Chris has achieved worldwide album sales in excess of 45 million, performed approaching 4,000 concerts globally and, perhaps more remarkably than anything else, continued to make his music, his way for his loyal followers. "Without