Alexander Rybak
| Alexander Rybak | |
|---|---|
 Rybak after he had won Eurovision 2009 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | 13 May 1986 |
| Origin | Minsk, Belarus |
| Genres | Pop, Folk, Classical |
| Occupations | Singer, Actor, songwriter Composer, Pianist |
| Instruments | Vocals, Violin, Piano |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Associated acts | Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Frikar |
| Website | www.alexanderrybak.com |
Alexander Rybak (Belarusian: Аляксандр Ігаравіч Рыбак, Russian: Александр Игоревич Рыбак, born 13 May 1986 in Russia) is a Norwegian[1] singer-composer, violinist, pianist, writer, and actor of Belarusian parentage. Representing Norway in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia, Rybak won the contest with 387 points — the highest tally any country has achieved in the history of Eurovision — with "Fairytale", a song he wrote and composed. His debut album, Fairytales, charted within the top 20 in 9 European countries, including a #1 position in Norway and Russia.
Contents |
Personal life
Rybak was born in Minsk, Belarus - which at that time was the Belarusian SSR in the Soviet Union. When he was 5 years old, he and his family moved to Norway.[2] At the age of five, Rybak began to play the piano and the violin.[2] His parents are Natallia Valiantsinauna Rybak, a classical pianist, and Igor Aliaksandravich Rybak, a well-known classical violinist who performs alongside Pinchas Zukerman.[3] Alexander Rybak stated "I always liked to entertain and somehow that is my vocation".[4] He bought a new apartment and now lives in Aker Brygge (Oslo, Norway).
Anger issue
In 2010 several incidents of uncontrolled anger caused commentators to question whether Rybak has a temper control problem. During the trials for the ESC 2010 finals in Oslo Rybak became so infuriated when a sound technician wasn't doing what he wanted that he smashed his hand, breaking his fingers. Also during trials for Swedish television in June he smashed his violin on the floor. His appearance was then canceled. According to his manager, Kjell Arild Tiltnes, Rybak does not have an issue with aggression. Tiltnes stated that "as long as he abreacts on objects and on himself, I see no reason for this to be something that he needs help dealing with." Rybak said "I never raised my voice before, and that's why I did what I did. I'm just a human being - and perhaps not the glossy image many believe. So it was good to get out frustrations so I could go on. It's only me that goes beyond the same." [5]
Career
Rybak has been a student at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo since the age of 10. Due to his success in the Eurovision Song Contest, he is currently taking a break from his Bachelor's degree studies at the Institute.[6][7] In 2004, Rybak was awarded the Anders Jahre Culture Prize.[8] In 2005, he entered the Norwegian version of Idol, reaching the semifinal. In 2006 Rybak won Kjempesjansen (The Great Opportunity), a talent competition hosted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), with his own song "Foolin'".[4] Alexander Rybak has collaborated with artists such as a-ha's lead singer Morten Harket and Arve Tellefsen. As of 2007, Rybak has played the fiddler in Oslo Nye Teater's production of Fiddler on the Roof and won the Hedda Award for this role.[4]
Eurovision 2009
Rybak won the 54th Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia, with a record 387 points, singing "Fairytale",[9] a song inspired by Norwegian folk music. The song was composed and written by Rybak[10] and was performed together 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[4] and in an ESCtoday poll he scored 71.3%, making him the favourite to get into the final.[11]
In the Norwegian national heats, Rybak achieved a clean sweep, gaining the top score from all nine voting districts and ending with a combined televote and jury score of 747,888, while the runner up Tone Damli Aaberge received a combined score of 121,856.[12]
The song competed in the second semi-final and won a place in the Eurovision final.
Rybak later won the Eurovision final with a landslide victory, receiving votes from all the participating countries (except Norway, which was not allowed to vote for itself). Rybak finished with a total of 387 points, breaking the previous record of 292 points scored by Lordi in 2006 and scoring 169 points more than the runner-up, Iceland. He is also the fourth most successful artist of Eurovision with 387 points, behind Dima Bilan, Carola and Chiara.
After Eurovision, film and the first album
Rybak's first album Fairytales was released after his Eurovision win. Rybak also co-stars as Levi in the film Yohan directed by Grete Salomonsen, which is to be released in 2010.[13] Rybak also went on a tour in Norway with former Norwegian Eurovision winner Elisabeth Andreassen, something that had been decided before his Eurovision win and participation. He and Frikar has also toured Norway, and Europe in 2009. On December 2009 performance of his hit Fairytale at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, held at the Oslo Spektrum. Rybak shared the stage with other nine acts.[14] Too EMI Norway has just released a film entitled Fairytale, the movie, directed by acclaimed Norwegian director, Rune Langlo, documenting the journey of Alexander Rybak since claiming the top prize for Norway in Moscow.[15]
In 2009 he recorded the theme song called "I Don't Believe in Miracles / Superhero"for the Russian action movie Black Lightning produced by Timur Bekmambetov.[16]
2nd album (2010–present)
On the 30th January 2010 performed one of his new single's "Europe Skies" in national final, Euroviisut 2010, to select the 2010 Finnish entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Same song that performed with Fairytale in final national tour through to Slovenia, Russia, United Kingdom, Sweden and Bosnia & Herzegovina.[17] On the 12th March 2010 Alexander Rybak performed his Eurovision 2009 winning song "Fairytale" on UK TV Show Eurovision: Your Country Needs You. On April 2010 release a new song featuring Opptur called "Fela Igjen"[18]. Alexander released his second album on the 14th June 2010 No Boundaries. It was not as successuful as his last album, so far it has peaked to number 11 in Norway, number 8 in Sweden and 32 in Finland.
Discography
Albums
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOR | BEL | DEN | DUT | FIN | GER | POL | RUS | SWE | EU | ||
| 2009 | Fairytales[19] | 1 | 13 | 15 | 29 | 4 | 16 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 18 |
| 2010 | No Boundaries[20] | 7 | — | — | — | 32 | — | — | — | 8 | — |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart positions[21] | Album | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOR | UK | IRE | RUS | FIN | GRE | SWE | DEN | DUT | EU | |||||||||||||||
| 2009 | "Fairytale"[22] | 1 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Fairytales | ||||||||||||
| "Funny Little World"[23] | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| "Roll With the Wind"[24] | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| 2010 | "Oah"[20] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | No Boundaries | ||||||||||||
| Other singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2009 | "I Don't Believe in Miracles / Superhero"[25][26] | — | — | — | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Black Lightning Soundtrack | ||||||||||||
| 2010 | "Fela Igjen" (feat. Opptur)[20] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-Album single | ||||||||||||
Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 2009 | Fairytale - The Movie | Documentary about Alexander Rybak after his ESC-Victory | |
| 2010 | How to Train Your Dragon | Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third | Rybak lends his voice to the Norwegian and the Russian dubbed version of this computer-animated film[27] |
| 2010 | Yohan: The Child Wanderer | Levi | |
References
- ↑ Hansen, Kjeld-Willy (2009-05-09). "Rybaks ukjente fortid i Larvik" (in Norwegian). Østlands-Posten. http://www.op.no/kultur/article4317559.ece. Retrieved 2009-07-12.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Horne, Birte Njøsen (07 Oct 2006). "Alexander Rybak" (in Norwegian). nrk.no. http://www.nrk.no/programmer/tv/kjempesjansen/1.1087124.
- ↑ Biography: April 2009 Alexander Rybak, EMI Music, Germany
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Espen Hansen, Tom (9 Feb 2009). "'Being a big favourite makes me nervous' esctoday.com met with Alexander Rybak". esctoday.com. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13180. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
- ↑ Pettersen, Jonas (June 22, 2010). "Knuste fiolinen i raseri foran hundrevis av tilskuere" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/06/22/kjendis/alexander_rybak/melodi_grand_prix/tv4/12241621/. Retrieved June 22, 2010.Hildrum, Alf. "Rybak knuste fiolinen på scenen i raseri" (in Norwegian). http://www.tv2underholdning.no/gkn/rybak-knuste-fiolinen-paa-scenen-i-raseri-3234339.html. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
- ↑ "Alexander Rybak Main Stage". The Norwegian Opera and Ballet. Archived from the original on May 21, 2009. http://www.webcitation.org/5gwJcPhrL. Retrieved May 21, 2009.
- ↑ Pedersen, Pål Fredrik (May 14, 2009). "Rybak ble stor stjerne" (in Norwegian). Norway: TV 2 (Norway). Archived from the original on 21 May 2009. http://www.webcitation.org/5gwJMm2N8. Retrieved May 21, 2009.
- ↑ "Anders Jahres kulturpris 2004 til Ingvar Ambjørnsen og Geir Kjetsaa" (in Norwegian). ajhs.no. 30 June 04. http://www.ajhs.no/scripts/ingress/read.pl?id=040630091306-683. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
- ↑ Klier, Marcus (21 Feb 2009). "Norway: Alexander Rybak to Eurovision". ESCtoday. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13325. Retrieved 2009-02-21.
- ↑ Schacht, Andreas (7 Feb 2009). "Norway: Alexander Rybak and Ovi to final!". eurovision.tv. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=1891. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
- ↑ Klier, Marcus (7 Feb 2009). "Third semi final results Norway: Another two acts chosen for the national final". escfans.com. http://www.escfans.com/news/read/13167. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
- ↑ "www.esctoday.com/news/read/13325". http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13325.
- ↑ "Alexander til filmen" (in Norwegian). yohan.no. 28 July. http://www.yohan.no/nyheter-/36-august/161-alexander-til-filmen. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
- ↑ http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/14608
- ↑ http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/14571
- ↑ "They said it would kill my career" Rybak: "I listened only to myself", esctoday.com, January 2, 2010
- ↑ http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/15059
- ↑ http://twitter.com/AlexanderRybak/statuses/12785381066
- ↑ "Alexander Rybak - Fairytales - Music Charts". aCharts. http://acharts.us/album/43925. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Alexander Rybak - Official homepage
- ↑ "Alexander Rybak - Music Charts". aCharts. http://acharts.us/performer/alexander_rybak. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ↑ "Alexander Rybak - Fairytale - Music Charts". aCharts. 2009-02-01. http://acharts.us/song/41664. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ↑ "Alexander Rybak - Funny Little World - Music Charts". aCharts. http://acharts.us/song/43730. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ↑ "Alexander Rybak - Roll With The Wind - Music Charts". aCharts. 2009-01-06. http://acharts.us/song/43929. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
- ↑ Alexander Rybak – Ya ne veryu v chudesa, Alexander Rybak - Official homepage, January 12, 2010
- ↑ http://tophit.ru/cgi-bin/trackinfo.cgi?id=22254
- ↑ Rybak dubber "Dragetreneren" (Norwegian), NRK, January 14, 2010
- Hyllet i hjembygda (Norwegian), Østlands-Posten, May 18, 2009, about the official Alexander Rybak Fanclub on Facebook
- Du kan bli med Alex til Moskva (Norwegian), Akershus Amtstidende, April 15, 2009, about the official Alexander Rybak Fanclub on Facebook
External links
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Maria Haukaas Storeng with "Hold On Be Strong" |
Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 |
Succeeded by Didrik Solli-Tangen with "My Heart Is Yours" |
Preceded by Dima Bilanwith "Believe" |
Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 |
Succeeded by Lena Meyer-Landrut with "Satellite" |
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