Multi-millionaire crooner Chris de Burgh has vowed to continue his campaign to make history and perform to a million fans in Iran.

The best-selling artist revealed in an exclusive interview how he is still determined to fulfil his pledge to his fans and become the first western artist since the 1979 revolution to play there.

Although the Lady in Red star recently celebrated his milestone 60th birthday, the energetic singer is exhibiting no signs of taking his foot off the pedal any time soon.

"I visited Tehran earlier this year because for more than 20 years, my music has been extremely popular there and I was invited there by the Iranian government," he explained.

"I believe the concert will happen. Right now, it's a very complicated game of chess that's going on but during my visit to Tehran, I went with three or four technicians and we visited several of the major venues, including a football stadium. And we asked them how many people they reckoned we could sell tickets to in Tehran and they said probably a million -- that's an awesome number."

Historical

And the Enniskerry native, who has sold over 45 million albums worldwide, said the historical concert could happen as early as next spring.

"I'm releasing my new record Footsteps all over Europe next month so I'll also be working on that a lot," he said.

The popular singer joined model daughter Rosanna Davison and son Hubie on the party scene in Dublin last night.

He was one of the guests at a debate hosted by The Dubliner magazine to discuss who was the capital's greatest ever citizen. But the star, who chose Oscar Wilde, admitted the reason he got involved was because he had some unfinished business with the mag's editor.

"A few weeks ago, I read a piece that Trevor White wrote in a magazine about a trip to Iran he just made. It was a very interesting piece but he was kind of rude about me!" he explained.

"Usually after 34 years as a public figure, you kind of let a lot of stuff go by but this time I thought, 'no he's got that wrong'. It was just a little jibe about how everywhere he went, all he could hear was Chris de Burgh songs.

"So I called him up and he was pretty nervous when I rang and I just wanted to put him straight on a couple of things."

- Melanie Finn