Biografie Alexander Rybak

Alexander Rybak (born 13 May 1986 in Minsk, BSSR) is a violinist, singer, composer and actor from Norway. Rybak represented Norway and won the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

Early life

Rybak was born in the former Soviet Union in BSSR. He and his parents moved to Norway, where he grew up, since the age of four.[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, who is a well-known violinist in Norway. Alexander has stated "I always liked to entertain and somehow that is my vocation".[2] He lives in Nesodden outside of the Norwegian capital Oslo.

Professional life

Rybak was awarded the highly respected Anders Jahre Culture Prize in 2004.[3] He entered the Norway's version of Idol reaching the semi final and in 2006 he won the talent competition Kjempesjansen hosted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation with his own song Foolin’.[2] Alexander Rybak has collaborated with artists like 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.[2] He stars as Levi in the film Yohan directed by Grete Salomonsen, also featuring the noted model and singer Aylar Lie.[4]

Eurovision 2009

Main article: Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Alexander Rybak won (with 387 points) the 54th Eurovision in Russia 2009, singing Fairytale,[5] a song inspired by Russian and Norwegian folk music. The song was composed and written by Rybak himself.[6] The song is performed with the modern folk dance company Frikar. The song has received good reviews with a 6 out of 6 from Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.[2] In an ESCtoday poll he was the lead in a poll with 71.3% to get into the final from the semi he was in.[7]

In the Norwegian preselection 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.[8]

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, even exceeding the points expected and breaking the previous record of 292 points scored by Lordi in 2006, finishing with a grand total of 387 points, 169 more than the runner up of Iceland and 95 points more than the previous record holders.

From Wikipedia.org