Alexander Rybak place of birth Minsk
Alexander Igorevich Rybak  (Russian: Александр Игоревич Рыбак) or Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak (Belarusian: Аляксандр Ігаравіч Рыбак; born 13 May 1986) is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist and actor.Based in Oslo, Rybak extensively worked on television programs and on tours in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe throughout the early 2010s. Performing in English, Russian and Norwegian, Rybak held on to a teen idol status in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and to a certain extent in Western Asia in his early twenties.His debut 2009 album, Fairytales, charted in the top 20 in nine European countries, including a top position in Norway and Russia. After two pop albums in Fairytales and No Boundaries (2010), Rybak switched to become a family-oriented artist, focusing on children's and classical music and frequently performing with youth orchestras throughout the world.Rybak is known for his extensive involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest. Representing Norway in the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia, he won the competition with 387 points—the highest tally any country has achieved in the history of Eurovision under the then-voting system—with "Fairytale", a song he wrote and composed. Winning at the age of 23, Rybak remains the youngest solo male winner of the contest and the only Belarusian-born winner to date. His win was celebrated throughout Europe for crushing stereotypes about the contest, such as needing an over-the-top performance or the influence of neighbour voting.Since then, Rybak has been involved several times in the contest. He represented Norway again in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, with the song "That's How You Write a Song", winning the second semi-final and finishing in 15th place in the final. He performed as an opening act for the 2010 final and as an interval act in 2012 and 2016. Rybak has frequently provided commentary on the contest, and also worked as a journalist in 2011, and as a judge on the Belgian national finals in 2016 and 2023.Early life
Rybak was born in Minsk, Belarus, which at that time was the Byelorussian SSR in the Soviet Union. His parents and most of his other family hail from the town Vitebsk, in Northern Belarus. His father Igor Rybak, a well-known classical violinist who performed alongside Pinchas Zukerman, defected to Norway in 1991 after a concert tour of a Belarusian chamber orchestra which he was part of. Rybak's father lived with a musical family who gave him shelter and food in exchange for violin lessons for their son. Alexander Rybak and his mother Natalia Rybak (née Gurina), who worked as a music journalist and a piano teacher, arrived in Norway on a tourist visa and were initially refused a residence permit. Eventually, the Rybak family settled in Nesodden in the early 1990s. Rybak and his family received Norwegian citizenship after seven years of residing in Norway.At the age of five, Rybak began to play piano but eventually picked up the violin as his main instrument. He stated "I always liked to entertain and somehow that is my vocation". He became a student at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo at the age of 10. As a result of his Eurovision win in 2009, he took a break from his bachelor's degree studies at the institute, but in 2011 he returned to his studies, and in June 2012 he graduated from the institute with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance.
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