BIOGRAPHY and CAREER
of Alexander Rybak
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| ➡FILMOGRAPHY |
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| ➡DISCOGRAPHY |
MAGYARUL ➡ITT 
Based on the biography of the official website and WikipediaEn, WikpediaNo | Last update: 13.1.2020
Alexander Rybak, as a violinist, well-known throughout Europe and the world, is recognized for his musical versatility across classical and pop and many more genres as well. He is one of the most streamed Norwegian and viewed ESC-artists with over 650.000 subscribers on YouTube, 774.000 followers on Facebook and 26.000 on Instagram.
Alexander (Igoryevich) Rybak was born on May 13th 1986 in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus. His parents moved to Norway and settled with their five year old son in Nesodden near Oslo. Alexander's parents are both professional musicians and they taught their son to play the violin and piano from an early age. Soon, he had to choose between his two instruments and he decided to go with the violin. He still plays the piano, along with the guitar, this latter only as a hobby.
He speaks in Norwegian, Russian and English fluently, has performed and written songs in all three languages.
Alexander practiced with fierce discipline for many hours every day and played concerts with his family from very young age, and already as a child, he went to concert tours as a member of various orchestras even to far away countries.
He also composed music from an early age. Not only his musical talent was obvious, but his unusual way of mixing various genres while performing classical music in a free, "rebellish" way. He began playing jazz and popular standards as well as pop hits.
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| Alexander as a ➡CLASSICAL violinist |
2000-2009
He showed his musical talent and great spirit from an early age, when played concerts and went on concert tours with his family.
Read about his early musical career ➡HERE
Born with a competitive streak, he joined the Norwegian talent contest “Idol” in 2005, but it was the “Kjempesjansen” (Norway´s Got Talent on the state TV-channel NRK) one year later that he got really far in and won with his own jazzy composition “Foolin'”.
In 2007, he got the role of the Fiddler in Oslo Nye Teater's play “Fiddler on the Roof”, for which he was awarded the Hedda Prize (the most renowned award for a stage actor in Norway).
He has collaborated with Norwegian artists such as Stephen Ackles, Morten Harket, Knutsen & Ludvigsen, often with Thomas Stanghelle and Arve Tellefsen from old times until today.
He has collaborated with Norwegian artists such as Stephen Ackles, Morten Harket, Knutsen & Ludvigsen, often with Thomas Stanghelle and Arve Tellefsen from old times until today.
In between all of his engagements, Alexander traveled while playing for food and lodging in some of the valleys and islands of Norway.
On one of these trips, he got inspired to write a song called “Fairytale”, which led to his decision to sign up for Melodi Grand Prix, the national Eurovision selection in Norway. He won MGP with the highest score of viewer votes ever. So he went on to the 54th EUROVISION SONG CONTEST in Moscow in May 2009 and won it with a landslide victory too. He finished with a grand total of 387 points, the highest one of all time in ESC-history until that year.
“Fairytale” became a major hit in Europe, reached top 3 on the European chart in many countries. He also released his debut album “Fairytales”, followed by 7 more until today.
In the years after his Eurovision victory, Alexander was touring with concerts and TV-shows all over the world. He has visited 44 countries so far.
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| Alexander as ➡composer and performer of MOVIE music |
After 2009
Around this time, he got his first role in a Norwegian family movie, “Yohan, Barnevandreren" ("Yohan, The Child Wanderer”) as well as he dubbed the lead character, Hiccup in the Norwegian version of the animated movies of Dreamworks “How To Train Your Dragon 1, 2 and 3”, and he also sent in one of his songs, “Into a Fantasy” to DreamWorks and they approved, so it became one of the soundracks of the 2nd movie.
As a result of his success in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, he took a break from his studies at the Barratt Due Music Institute, but in 2011 he returned and in June 2012, he got his bachelor degree in violin performance with a top ‘A’ grade.
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| Trondheimsolistene |
He has been concert master or soloist and collaborated or went on concert tours with prestigious orchestras like Oslo Filharmonic, Ung Symfoni Bergen, Minsk Chamber Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra, KORK (Norwegian Radio Orchestra), Trondheim Soloists, or the Czech Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra.
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| As Elvis Presley in One to One |
Main festivals and TV-shows Alexander participated in:
2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 - Slavic Bazar, Vitebsk, Belarus
2011 - The Swedish version of tv franchise Strictly Come Dancing Skal Vi Danse
2013 - Russian Song Festival, London
2014 - Norwegian reality TV-show "Hver gang vi møtes"/Every Time We Meet (artists interpreting each other's songs)
2015 - Russian version of the Spanish reality tv franchise series Your face sounds familiar "Один в один!/Odin v Odin/One to One (the participants impersonate legendary artists)
2009-2019 - The Norwegian sing along show ”Allsang på grensen”
In 2011, based on his love of teaching and inspiration he usually gets from children, Alexander launched a new project: musical workshops with young musicians from music schools and youth orchestras; it is a concept of 3 days of workshop and a final, public concert with him and the young musicians. He carried out a big amount of seminars all over in Norway, in Sweden, the USA, Turkey and Belarus. |
| Alexander as an ➡ACTOR |
Every year from 2015 on, Alexander has taken part in a historical play “Soot-Spelet”, performed outdoors in the unique canal amphitheatre in Ørje, Norway. He has played the role as one of his big idols, the legendary Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull.
He composed entries for several European artists for their national ESC-selection, like "I'm With You" for Annsofi Pettersen from Norway, 2013, "Still Here" in 2014 for Franklin Calleja from Malta and "Accent" for the girl band "Milki" from Belarus.
He also likes to cover successful MGP- and Eurovision-entries, like he did to the ESC winning song of the Ukrainian Jamala in 2016 and the Portuguese Salvador Sobral in 2017 as well as the MGP-winner's Keiino in 2019.
He also performed in the interval act for several ESC shows, like the Grand Final Stockholm 2016, or in the MGP-final 2019.
His virtuos and heartfelt violin play has also allowed him to create a true Christmas mood at several Christmas concert tours, while collaborating with many other great artists,
like Vinterbilder 2011 with Anne Vada and Dennis Storhøi,
his own production "Swinging Home for Christmas" (2010) and
the "Stille Natt Hellige Natt" (2012-2018)
He also performed in the interval act for several ESC shows, like the Grand Final Stockholm 2016, or in the MGP-final 2019.
His virtuos and heartfelt violin play has also allowed him to create a true Christmas mood at several Christmas concert tours, while collaborating with many other great artists,
like Vinterbilder 2011 with Anne Vada and Dennis Storhøi,
his own production "Swinging Home for Christmas" (2010) and
the "Stille Natt Hellige Natt" (2012-2018)
In 2018, 9 years after his huge ESC-victory in Moscow, he decided to sign up for the Melodi Grand Prix once again. He won the Norwegian ESC-preselection for the second time, thus again got the right to represent Norway in the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST ESC2018 Lisbon with his own-composed song “That’s How Write a Song”, both as a composer and performer.
He qualified for the finals, and finished in 15th place.
He qualified for the finals, and finished in 15th place.
In the meantime, Alexander was also working on another big project, his idea of writing the story of a little, outcast troll for nearly 10 years.
It was the book that came out first, when the Norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm published his story “Trolle og den Magiske Fela” ("Trolle and the Magic Fiddle") as a children's book together with 3 CDs with 13 new songs and the story, narrated and performed by himself and renowned Norwegian actors. The book+audiobook has received great reviews in Norway.
Then in November 2019, the figures of the magical troll-universe like the protagonist, Trolle himself came to life finally, in the musical staged by the established theater Kilden Teater og Konserthus in Kristiansand, Norway. Alexander played the title role together with a big crew of adult and children actors. They played 21 scheduled and 3 extra shows.
The production got very good reviews, incl. a 6-dice review (dice throw is a Norwegian method of review in the media).
EDUCATION:
1996-2009/11-12 - Bachelor in executive violin at Barrat Due Musikkinstitutt, Grade "A"
2002 - Full scholarship at the prestigious, english summer-school “Meadowmount School of Music“
2002-2005 - Rud High School Rud for Music, Dance and Drama
RECOGNITION AND AWARDS:
2000 and 2001 - Winner of “Sparre Olsen – competition for young classical musicians“2004 - Anders Jahre Culture Award
2009 - Winner of talent competition “Kjempesjansen” (NRK)
2007 - Hedda-Award to the “Newcomer of the year in Norwegian Theater”
2009 - Winner of “Eurovision Song Contest” 2009, with the highest score of all time2009 - “Australian Radio Listeners Award” for European musicians
2009 - “Marcel Bezencon Press Award” at Eurovision
2010 - Russian Grammy for ”Newcomer of the year” (MUZ-TV)
2010 - Norwegian Grammy “Artist of the Year 2009”
2011 - ”International Russian Name Award” in Moscow, Russia
2013 - ”Top 50 successful and beautiful people of the city of Minsk.” Belarus
2018 - "Winner of the “Melodi Grand Prix“
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