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 first created album, Fairytales. The album is expected to be released June 2, 2009.

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 was awarded the Anders Jahre Culture Prize in 2004. He entered the Norwegian version of Idol, where he later reached the semifinal. In 2006 Rybak won the talent competition, Kjempesjansen. The competition was hosted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), with his own made 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.

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 has received good reviews with a 6 out of 6 from Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. 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.
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. 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 vote including all participating countries (except Norway). Finishing with a grand total of 387 points, 169 points more than runner up Iceland, breaking the previous record of 292 points.