Alexander Rybak Biography

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 has written and composed, "Fairytale". "Fairytale" is one of the songs from Rybak's debut album, Fairytales.

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. 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." 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. Alexander Rybak has stated "I always liked to entertain and somehow that is my vocation". 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. Rybak was awarded the Anders Jahre Culture Prize in 2004. 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'. 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. He stars as Levi in the film Yohan directed by Grete Salomonsen.

EUROVISION 2009
Rybak won (with a record 387 points) the 54th Eurovision Song Contest in Russia 2009, singing "Fairytale", a song inspired by Norwegian folk music. The song was composed and written by Rybak himself. 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. In an ESCtoday poll he scored 71.3%, making him the favourite to get into the final from the semi he was in.

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.

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 by Lordi in 2006.

He said that he was bullied in school by other students, because he played violin..

well don't worry alex!!!! who's laughing now?!?!!!? you don't need them!!! we're all here for you!!!

yeah.. we're his security guard.. just try to pass trough us and.. u don't wanna know.. muahahah..

yup yup! go us!!! we should all have code names!!! i know! i'll just go with fairy.tales!

well.. hmm.. somethnig to go with fairytales.. I KNOW!! i'm princess!! lalala!! i luv it!! princess princess princess princess princess!! *wow*

hahahah yay! princess and fairytales! any other code names from any other members?

still waiting for them..

yup....waiting list still open....but the line aint great....well me and princess will go first!!! come on! let's go to norway!

i can get a code name to?
you can call me Sweetheart

omg! yaya!!!!! join in!!!!!

woot!!! and then there was 3!!!

fairytales, princess and sweetheat!!

jeeeeej ^^

I'm the magic dolphin!

yay!! sweeet we got our fourth agent!!!!

magic dolphin
fairytales
princess
and sweetheart!!!

hey magic dolphin did you see the funny clip of alex trading in his violin for a cow? its on youtube! LOL sooooo cute!!!! he looked so confused!!

whaaaat?
Have you got the link for me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBWg--x_YQ&feature=PlayList&p=B0460A2852CF76A9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=54

it was this joke thing at the beginning of the show for children in norway!

hahaha i loved the way he said: princess marthe!!!!

i wish i was her....*jealous*

ahaha
That was funny!

haha but it is funny ^^ a cow XD

yeaaaa it was funny...

"yes i've always wanted to trade my fiddle for a cow!"

hahahaah

yeah ^^
he is funny =)