Alexander Rybakov Blog

Alexander Rybak

May 23, 2009 at 6:23 pm (Uncategorized)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Rybak
Rybak after the Eurovision 2009 final in a press conference in Moscow, Russia.
Background information
Birth name	Belarusian: Аляксандр Рыбак
Born	13 May 1986 (age 23) Minsk, Belarusian SSR, USSR
Origin	Nesodden, Akershus, Norway
Genre(s)	Pop, Folk, Classical
Occupation(s)	Singer, Actor, Violinist, Composer,Pianist
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Violin, Piano
Years active	1991–present
Associated acts	Eurovision Song Contest 2009,Frikar
Website	Official homepage

Alexander Rybak (Belarusian: Аляксандр Рыбак, born May 13, 1986 in Minsk, Soviet Union) is a Norwegian violinist, singer, composer and actor. Rybak represented Norway in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, in Moscow, Russia. Rybak won the contest, with 387 points—the highest a country has achieved in the history of Eurovision—with a song he wrote himself, “Fairytale“. “Fairytale” is one of the songs from Rybak’s debut album, Fairytales.

Biography

Early life

Rybak was born in Minsk, which at the time was in the Belarusian SSR, in the Soviet Union. At the age of five, Rybak began to play the piano and violin. When he was six years old, he and his family moved to Norway.^[1] He says his favourite instrument at that time was the violin. Rybak said, “It’s the violin that has made 20 years of my life exciting.”^[1] Rybak has been playing instruments since the age of five, and he now plays both violin and piano. His parents are Natalia Valentinovna Rybak, a classical pianist, and Igor Alexandrovich Rybak, a well-known classical violinist who performs alongside Pinchas Zukerman.^[2] Alexander Rybak has stated “I always liked to entertain and somehow that is my vocation”.^[3] He lives in Nesodden outside of the Norwegian capital Oslo.

Professional life

Rybak has been a student at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo since age 10 and is currently taking a break from his Bachelor studies at the Institute due to the success from his winning the Eurovision Song Contest.^[4][5] Rybak was awarded the Anders Jahre Culture Prize in 2004.^[6] He entered the Norwegian version of Idol, reaching the semifinal. In 2006 Rybak won the talent competition, Kjempesjansen. The competition was hosted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), with his own song, Foolin’.^[3] Alexander Rybak has collaborated with artists such as, a-ha‘s lead singer Morten Harket, and Arve Tellefsen. As of 2007, Rybak played the fiddler in Oslo Nye Teater‘s production of Fiddler on the Roof. For this role he won the Hedda Award.^[3] He stars as Levi in the filmYohan directed by Grete Salomonsen.^[7]

Eurovision 2009

Alexander Rybak at the Eurovision

Rybak won (with a record 387 points) the 54th Eurovision Song Contest in Russia 2009, singing “Fairytale“,^[8] a song inspired by Norwegian folk music. The song was composed and written by Rybak himself.^[9] The song was performed with the modern folk dance company Frikar. The song received good reviews with a score of 6 out of 6 in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.^[3] In an ESCtoday poll he scored 71.3%, making him the favourite to get into the final from the semi he was in.^[10]

In the Norwegian national heats Rybak achieved a clean sweep, gaining the top score of all nine voting districts, ending with a combined televote and jury score of 747,888, whereas the runner up Tone Damli Aaberge received a combined score of merely 121,856.^[11]

The song competed in the second semi-final and won a place in the Eurovision final.

Rybak later went on to win the Eurovision final, with a landslide, receiving votes from all the participating countries (except Norway, which was not allowed to vote for itself). He finished with a grand total of 387 points, 169 points more than runner up Iceland, breaking the previous record of 292 points scored byLordi in 2006.

Discography

Albums

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