Tajik Jimmy: The New Susan Boyle?

Move over Susan Boyle. "Tajik Jimmy" didn't need Simon Cowle's approval to become Internet famous.

Baimurat Allaberiyev, a diminutive native of Tajikistan who has herded sheep, picked cotton and toiled in construction, hardly looks like Russia's latest musical sensation.

But Allaberiyev has remarkable talent sets him apart from the millions of Central Asians who come to Russia to escape crushing poverty at home.

A musical prodigy, he can perform Bollywood show-stoppers as a one-man band, equipped with nothing but an uncanny falsetto and a metal bucket.

That -- and the miraculous star-making powers of the Internet -- have turned this 37-year-old into a cult celebrity here.

Allaberiyev won fame after shaky videos shot with mobile phones surfaced on the Internet that showed him performing songs like "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" from the 1983 Bollywood classic "Disco Dancer".

Set against grim backdrops like a construction site or a storeroom full of boxes, the videos became a viral sensation. They have now been viewed more than 400,000 times on YouTube, the movie-sharing website.

Read the rest of this remarkable story.

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