| 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. 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. 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 ... |
