Alexander Igoryevich Rybak is a Belarussian-Norwegian singer/songwriter, violinist, pianist, presenter and actor. He represented Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Fairytale". He scored a record number of points in the grand final - 387 - which stood for 7 years.
He entered the 2009 second semi-final in Moscow being the favorite to win the semi and the final, after winning the NMGP as the hot favorite.[1] In the grand final, Norway received votes from all participating countries, and beating the previous record of 292 points held by Lordi of Finland in 2006, and scoring 169 more points than Yohanna of Iceland, the runner-up that year. His 387 points included 16 sets of 12-point scores, a record that was eventually beaten by Loreen 3 years later in Baku.
His record amount of points was eclipsed in 2016 by Jamala, Dami Im, and Sergey Lazarev due to a new voting system.
Rybak has recently composed entries for national finalists, with the most recent being MILKI with "Accent" [2] in Belarus and Franklin Calleja with "Still Here" in Malta.[3] Both songs failed to win their national finals, which led Rybak to take some time out.[4].
He was also the voice of Hiccup in the Norwegian version of the How To Train Your Dragon movies, also contributing the song "Into A Fantasy" to the European edition of the second film's soundtrack.
He made his return at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon with the song That's How You Write a Song, finishing in 15th place in the grand final after winning the second semifinal.
He was the spokesperson for Norway in the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, and was also a member of the jury for the 2023 Belgian national final.
References[]
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20090224053412/http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13325
- ↑ http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/12/04/belarus-alexander-rybak-milki-eurofest-accent/68560/
- ↑ http://www.tvm.com.mt/eurovision/participants/franklin-calleja/
- ↑ http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/12/27/alexander-rybak-eurofest-facebook/70561/