Alexander Rybak

At 37 years old, Alexander Rybak has this physical status:

Alexander Igoryevich Rybak, or in Belarusian Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak (born 13 May 1986), is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist, and actor.

Rybak, Norway's representative in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia, received 387 points, the highest number any country has achieved under the old voting system—with "Fairytale," a song he wrote and composed.

Fairytales, his debut album, has ranked in the top 20 in nine European countries, with a No. 5 on his first album. Norway and Russia have a landslide.

Rybak appeared on Eurovision in 2012 and 2016, playing the violin in both interval acts.

With the album "That's How You Write a Song," he represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Early life

Rybak was born in Minsk, Belarus, which was then the Belarusian SSR in the Soviet Union at the time. His parents and the bulk of his relatives are from Vitebsk, Belarus. After a concert tour of a Belarusian chamber orchestra of which he was a member of Pinchas Zukerman, Igor Rybak, a well-known classical violinist who performed with Pinchas Zukerman, defected to Norway in 1991. The father of Rybak lived with a musical family who gave him shelter and food in exchange for violin lessons for their son. Alexander Rybak (née Gurina), a music journalist and a piano instructor, arrived in Norway on a tourist visa and were initially refused a residence permit. The Rybak family arrived in Nesodden in the early 1990s. After seven years of being in Norway, Rybak and his family were granted Norwegian citizenship.

Rybak began playing piano at the age of five, but he eventually picked up violin as his main instrument. "I always liked to entertain, and somehow that is my occupation," he said. He started at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo at the age of ten. He took a break from his bachelor's degree studies at the academy in 2009, but in June 2012 he graduated from the institute with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance.

Personal life

Rybak was raised in the Orthodox faith. He used to be referred to as Sasha, the Russian diminutive for his first name, both in family circles and in his childhood.

Rybak did not visit his country of birth for 17 years after his emigration to Norway and his first appearance in Belarus in the Summer of 2009. Despite the fact that he was a young boy, Rybak revealed that he had a sister who was estranged from his father's earlier marriage. For the first time in many years, Rybak met his half-sister in 2012.

Rybak bought a new apartment and lives in Aker Brygge (Oslo, Norway). Rybak has performed songs in both Norwegian, Russian, and English fluently, and has performed in both languages. Rybak has appeared in Belarusian and, with Elisabeth Andreassen in Swedish, also in Belarus.

After a few instances of uncontrolled rage in 2010, Rybak was prominent in the media negatively. Both times, Rybak had a tense debate with a sound technician. In May 2010, Rybak broke his fingers and also broken his violin on stage, which was also on display at a later date. "I never raised my voice before," Rybak said, explaining why I did what I did." I'm just a human being—and certainly not the glossy image that some people have hoped for. So it was good to get out of frustrations so I could move forward. "It's only me that goes beyond the same." Rybak later attributed his erratic touring schedule, which culminated in him being overworked, while simultaneously addressing depression as a result of his touring schedule, prompting him to be hospitalized. He later said he'd have to learn to say "no" more often. Rybak struggled a lot with an unidentified illness in 2018 and 2019, causing him to cancel multiple performances. After his second Eurovision appearance, Rybak said he was first diagnosed with exhaustion-related illnesses. In October 2019, Rybak declared himself hypochondriac, saying, "anyone over the age of 20 has their own war with something." Rybak said he had been aided by a organisation for his children's musical Trolle og den magisken fela. He migrated to Kristiansand, a coastal city, temporarily for this work. Rybak revealed in May 2020 that he had been addicted to sleep pills and antidepressants for 11 years and that he had started recovering after entering rehab in January.

He began attending Columbia College Chicago almost from home in Norway in fall 2020 and then moved to Chicago to continue his studies in person by August 2021. In July 2022, he graduated from Columbia.

Source

Career

Viktoriya Rybak gave Rybak the Anders Jahren Culture Prize in 2004, the country's biggest culture festival. He entered the Norwegian version of Idol, Idol, in 2005, achieving the semifinals. Rybak won "The Great Opportunity"), a talent competition hosted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), in 2006 with his own song, "Foolin." Morten Harket and Arve Tellefsen, the lead singer of a-haul's, have collaborated with artists. Rybak appeared in Fiddler on the Roof, Oslo Nye Teater's production of Fiddler on the Roof in 2007 and received the Hedda Award for this role.

Rybak earned a record 387 points in Moscow, Russia, for her song "Fairytale," a Norwegian folk music tribute. Rybak wrote and performed the piece, which culminated in a performance by Frikar's modern folk dance company Frikar. In a ESCtoday survey, the song received good feedback and a score of 6 out of 6 in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, and he finished 73%, making him the favorite to advance to the final.

Rybak made a clean sweep of all nine voting districts, culminating with a combined televote and jury score of 747,888, out of a total population of fewer than 5 million).

The song then qualified for the Eurovision final and placed in the second semi-finals. Rybak won the Eurovision final with a landslide victory, winning votes from all of the other participating countries. Rybak finished with a score of 387 points, breaking the previous record of 292 points scored by Lordi in 2006 and scoring 169 points more than runner-up Iceland.

Fairytales, Rybak's first album, was released following his Eurovision triumph. In the film Yohan directed by Grete Salomonsen, which was released in March 2010, Rybak also co-starred as Levi. Ex Norwegian Eurovision champion Elisabeth Andreassen had already traveled in Norway with former Norwegian Eurovision champion Elisabeth Andreassen, something that had not been decided before his Eurovision victory and participation. In 2009, Frikar and Nielsen toured Norway and Europe.

Rybak performed his hit "Fairytale" at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in December 2009, which took place in Oslo Spektrum, sharing the stage with nine other performers. EMI Norway has just released Fairytale, the film directed by Rene Langlo and tracing Alexander Rybak's journey after winning the top prize in Moscow.

In 2009, he produced the theme song "I Don't Believe in Miracles/Superhero" for Timur Bekmambetov's Russian action film Black Lightning.

Rybak performed "Europe's Skies" in the national final, Euroviisut 2010, selecting the 2010 Finnish entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. On March 12, 2010, Alexander Rybak performed his Eurovision 2009 winning song "Fairytale" on British television show "Your Country Needs You." "Fela Igjen," Rybak's new song starring Opptur, was released in April 2010.

Rybak's first single from his second album "Oah" debuted on June 8, 2010. For the single, there was a music video. Lars Kristian Flemmen, produced by Eirik Heldal, and shot by Martin J. Edelsteen. It's been shot in a university or college. "Strela Amura" by Robert Heard also performed and released a Russian version of this song (Russian: Cupid's arrow).

Alexander's second album, No Boundaries, was released on June 14, 2010. It wasn't as well-received as his debut album, so far it has ranked 7 in Norway, number 8 in Sweden, and 32 in Finland. Rybak was one of twelve contestants on the next Swedish season of Let's Dance (Swedish translation of television show Strictly Come Dancing), on January 7th, 2011. Rybak made it to the top four before being disqualified on 11 March after receiving the lowest marks from both juries and the public. He released the album Visa vid vindens ängar, a collaboration with Mats Paulson whom he describes as "a legend and a great friend" on X Factor (Romania).

In 2012, he released "Strela Amura," his Russian song "Strela Amura." "Strela Amura" is the Russian version of Oah, one of his previous singles released in 2010. The music video was shot in Kyiv, Ukraine. "For me, the most important thing is what's going on inside a person, not the events surrounding them," Alexander said. The video for "Strela Amura" is about me and my love for the airports and hotels. You bring happiness to others, but you are left alone."

"I'll Show You" was a duet with Paula Seling on May 30, 2012. At the 2010 Eurovision, Seling came third. The song had already been popular on Romanian television and radio. Capsounds, a German company, has signed the album and will be touring Europe.

On October 12, 2012, Rybak's "Leave Me Alone," a new single, was released around the world. The premiere of the music video was also released shortly after the single, which was on October 23rd. On November 12th, the Russian version of "Dostala" was released, and it was about a particular female fan from Israel (but not many others) who has been stalking him in various ways for quite a long time. David Eriksen, a writer known to Eurovision Song Contest fans for writing "Butterflies" for Tone Damli Aaberge, the runner-up to Rybak in the 2009 Melodi Grand Prix, is co-written on the new track, which will be available on the day.

On November 23, 2012, Rybak released a Christmas collection titled Christmas Tales. Since 2012, recordings have been released. It was revealed that Rybak wrote a song for Norwegian singer Annsofi for Melodi Grand Prix 2013. The entry "I'm With You" made it to the final of the tournament and finished fourth overall.

He launched "5 to 7 Years" in October 2013. After seeing 600,000 followers on Facebook, he made this a gift for his followers.

"Into a Dream" is Rybak's album for the 2014 How to Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack. "Into a Fantasy" was included as a European and Slavic bonus track on the album and was played during the closing credits in the European and Russian releases of the film. Rybak had sent the song unsolicited to DreamWorks, which was captivated by the song's success and wanted to include it in the closing credits' soundtrack.

"Gorka Hrabrost" means "Bitter Bravery" in his case, and he performed it on May 4th, 2014.

On October 10, 2014, Rybak appeared on The Hit, a live TV show on Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Rybak performed "What I Long For," a song written by Elisabet Mjanger. Despite being the most awaited lead-up to the results show, Trine Rein with "The Story of Love" ended up winning the entire competition, with Trine Rein on "The Story of Love."

In 2015, Rybak submitted two entries for national selections for Eurovision. "Still Here" is Rybak's song for Maltese singer Franklin Calleja. The song was well received and placed fourth in the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2015. After having considered it for more than a year, Rybak travelled to Belarus to form a girlband to represent Belarus at Eurovision 2015. Auditions were held in five different cities around the country. Rybak revealed his MILKI girlband in early November, shortly after that, they debuted their song "Accent" shortly after. Fans quickly became the favorite to represent Belarus at Eurovision 2015, and former Eurovision participants Marija erifovi and Philipp Kirkorov responded favorably. MILKI finished fourth in the Belarusian national final on December 26th, receiving the second most tally of votes from the public. The result caused a lot of controversies, and Rybak chastised the jury for deciding the entry fifth.

Rybak took part in the Russian television show Odin vs. Odin! in which the participants impersonated legendary artists, the participants impersonated legendary artists. The premiere episode of Elvis Presley was broadcast on February 8th, in which he impersonated him. Despite initially refusing to include female artists, Rybak impersonated Gloria Gaynor, Conchita Wurst and Russian folk singer Lyudmila Ryumina, for whom the jury gave him high marks. Rybak finished 6th at the fourteenth show, and so was not among the five that advanced to the final. However, the judges said he deserved a place in the final and made an exception. He came in last place in the final rankings. With the televoting results, he took second place in 32.1% of the votes, behind Ruslan Alehno.

"отик"/Kotik" is Rybak's latest Russian single. This song was shot in Moscow, Russia, and was released on June 3rd, 2015. "Kotik" gained acclaim, and its music video attracted a lot of viewers. It topped Belarusian Bel Muz-TV's charts. In 2015, "Kotik" became one of the most watched Russian-language music videos. Despite being online, "Kotik" did not have a chance to crack the Russian radio charts. Radio DJs were refusing to play the song as a childish video, and some DJs were demanding Rybak for financial compensation for playing it, according to Rybak.

Rybak, who declared his intention to remain a children's musical in 2013, was unable to find the funds and assistance for this project. Rather, he created a children's book with songs and an audio book attached. Initially, Rybak was unable to find a publisher for this, as most publishers were only interested in the physical book. Trolle og den magiske fela was eventually released by Rybak through Cappelen Damm. The Danish rights were soon secured and Edward van de Vendel, who proof translated the book's first chapters into Dutch, was also praised. A new Norwegian song named "Blant Fjell" (Among Mountains) was released on June 12th.

In early 2016, Rybak was a one-off jury member in Eurosong, Belgium's pick for Eurovision 2016. In a musical number satirizing Eurovision songs, Rybak also appeared as part of the interlude act for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. He released his lead single, "I Came To Love You," in Greece, a few days after that.

Rybak celebrated his ten-year as an artist in 2016 by re-releasing hit songs such as "Foolin'" and "5 To 7 Years." Those followed him by multiple concert appearances under the name "Entertainer."

During the final of You Decide, the United Kingdom's preselection of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, Rybak performed "Fairytale." Rybak teamed up with German singer and violinist Franziska Wiese and shared a duet on his singles "Fairytale" and "Kotik" in the same year, as well as performing the former at the annual Schlagerboom festival.

During the Eurovision 2017 competition, Rybak unveiled Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral as the winner. Sobral's "Amar pelos dois" won Eurovision, bringing the Rybak's 2009 record to a new low. Rybak also released his own version of the song, which included self-written English lyrics. This version was later covered by Eurovision 2018 contestants Sennek and Ari Olafsson, among others.

Despite the fact that Rybak previously disliked the prospect of returning to Eurovision, he revealed in late 2017 that he was considering returning to Melodi Grand Prix.

Rybak will participate in the Norwegian national selection Melodi Grand Prix 2018, to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, with the song "That's How You Write a Song." The album received largely mixed feedback at the time. Rybak said that rather than aiming to win the lottery, Norwegian singer Jahn Teigen, who appeared 14 times in the Norwegian selection and won three times, was his inspiration.

Rybak was not the bookmakers and experts' pick to win the award, but the competition was dominated by several public polls. Rybak won the selection, to his own surprise and to the delight of both of the presenters. During the competition, Rybak defeated four international juries – Russia, Estonia, North Macedonia, and Czechia – more than any other contestant. Rybak advanced to the final duel with singer Rebecca, who later won.

Several news outlets announced that Norwegian broadcaster NRK had favoured Rybak, placing him last in the running order. NRK denied this, blaming the voting results that showed that Rybak had won by a wide margin. He won his first duel with 94.3% of the votes and his final duel by 71% of the votes, the third most votes an entry ever reached in Melodi Grand Prix history.

Rybak was chosen to place first in the second semi-finals on May 10th and finished first overall, becoming the first Eurovision performer to win two semi-finals after winning the second semi-final in 2009. Rybak placed seventh in the running order and ended in fifteenth place in the final, earning a top jury score from Italy on Tuesday.

Reviewers noted that Rybak's children's musical Trolle og den magiske fela premiered in Kristiansand in 2019 and received widespread critical notice. To reduce the demand, the show sold over 10,000 tickets and had to cancel additional performances.

Rybak co-wrote an entry for Melodi Grand Prix 2020 with JOWST for singer Magnus Bokn, "Over the Sea." The song earned the fourth-semi final of the audition show and advanced to the final, where it eventually lost to Ulrikke Brandstorp's "Attention."

At Eurovision 2020, Rybak was supposed to appear as part of an interlude act, but it was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries staged a produced show or held a referendum to determine their country's favorite Eurovision song of all times as a result of the contest cancellation. "Fairytale" by Rybak finished 3rd in Wallonia's Top 20, 17th in the Netherlands' NPO Radio 2 Songfestival Top 50 list and 6th in the United Kingdom's special Eurovision: Come Together exhibition. In late May 2020, "fairytale" re-entered the UK sales chart at #65. The Norwegians had voted "Fairytale" as their all-time favorite Eurovision song a year ago.

Rybak revealed in August 2020 that he had enrolled in Columbia College Chicago for an MFA degree in film music composition. After the positive feedback he received from producers for his album "Into a Fantasy" from the How to Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack, his interest in the field was reignited. By Kubilay Uner, director of the film music composition MFA program, he was convinced to attend Columbia University. In July 2022, he graduated from Colombia.

Source

Awards

• Winner of "Sparre Olsen – competition for young classical musicians", in 2000 and 2001.
• Winner of "Anders Jahres Culture-Award" 2004.
• Winner of TV- talent-competition "Kjempesjansen" 2006.
• Winner of the "Hedda-Award" to the "Newcomer of the year in Norwegian Theater", 2007, for the title role in Fiddler on the Roof at Oslo Nye Teater.
• Winner of "Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix" 2009, with the highest score of all times.
• Winner of "Eurovision Song Contest" 2009, with the highest score of all times.
• Winner of "Australian Radio Listeners Award" for European musicians, 2009.
• Winner of the "Marcel Bezencon Press Award" at Eurovision 2009.
• Nomination - Emma-gaala (Best Foreign Artist), 2009
• Winner of Russian Grammy for "Newcomer of the year" 2010.
• Winner of Norwegian Grammy-awards: "Spellemann of the Year" 2010.
• Winner of "International Russian Name Award" in Moscow 2011.
• Winner of "Countrymen of the Year". Belarus 2013
• Winner of Melodi Grand Prix 2018