Alexander Rybak languages spoken, written or signed Russian
Personal life
Rybak was raised in the Orthodox religion. In family circles and in his childhood, he used to be referred to as Sasha, the Russian diminutive for his first name.Rybak did not visit his country of birth for 17 years between his emigration to Norway and his first performance in Belarus in the Summer of 2009. Though he grew up as an only child, Rybak revealed that he had a sister from whom he was estranged, from an earlier marriage of his father's. In 2012, Rybak met his half-sister for the first time in many years.Rybak bought a new apartment and lives now at Aker Brygge (Oslo, Norway). Rybak speaks Norwegian, Russian, and English fluently, and has performed songs in all three languages. Rybak has also performed in Belarusian and, with Elisabeth Andreassen, in Swedish.
In 2010, Rybak was featured in the media negatively after a few incidents of uncontrolled anger. Both times, Rybak had a heated discussion with a sound technician. It resulted in Rybak breaking his fingers in May 2010, and during a later instance, also breaking his violin on stage. Rybak then 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." Rybak later blamed the behaviour on his hectic touring schedule, which led to him being overworked, also opening up about battling with depression due to his touring schedule, calling early 2011 the toughest moment of his life. He later stated he had to learn to say "no". In 2018 and 2019, Rybak struggled a lot with an unidentified illness, which led him to cancel several performances. 
To Ukrainian newspaper KP, Rybak said he was initially diagnosed with fatigue-related problems after his second Eurovision participation. In October 2019, Rybak declared he was hypochondriac, stating "all people above 20 have their own battle with something". Rybak started working in a group for his children's musical Trolle og den magisken fela has helped him. For this production, he temporarily moved to the coastal city Kristiansand. In May 2020, Rybak revealed that he had been addicted to sleeping medications and antidepressants for 11 years, and had begun to recover after entering rehab in January.He began attending Columbia College Chicago virtually from his home in Norway in fall of 2020, and subsequently moved to Chicago to continue his studies in person by August 2021. He graduated from Columbia in July 2022.
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