RIAA HIGH-FIVES O BROTHER

Following its impressive showing at this year's Grammy Awards, which included a win for Album of the Year, Mercury Nashville/Lost Highway Records' groundbreaking O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack has been certfied by the RIAA for sales of more than five million copies.

RIAA President/CEO Hilary Rosen took some time out from hitting the office spittoon at 40 feet to say: "The significance of this album will be remembered for years to come. It not only gave us an outstanding collection of some often overlooked musical genres, but it also showed that the tastes of music consumers are as diverse as ever."

Some of the artists appearing on the soundtrack saw the sales of their own albums register gains as well. Alison Krauss earned the fourth Gold album of her career as her latest for Rounder Records, New Favorite, has been certified for sales of more than 500k copies.

Mercury Nashville recording artist Shania Twain's Come On Over climbed from 18 to 19 million as the best-selling album by a solo female artist and the best-selling country album in history. It has moved into a three-way tie with The Beatles and AC/DC's Back In Black as the sixth best-selling album of all time.

Complete lists of all album, single and video awards for March 2002 can be accessed at www.riaa.com.