Alexander Rybak: biography
Alexander Rybak is the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009. The young man with touching appearance and a powerful voice has fascinated the audience of the show and has set up a record by the number of the gained points in the contest. This victory has provided worldwide popularity to the young Norwegian musician of the Belarusian origin.
Alexander Rybak began his biography in the capital of Belarus, Minsk. The singer was born on the 13th of May, 1986, for today he has become a success standard among young singers and composers in Europe.
Alexander grew up in the creative family. Alexander Rybak's parents are professional musicians who gave an example to the boy since his early years. His father Igor Aleksandrovich during all his life was playing the violin in the musical ensemble of Vitebsk on the violin. The singer's mother, Natalya Valentinovna, the pianist, has devoted herself to the editing of musical programs on the television of Belarus.
The love to music was inherited in Alexander Rybak's family from generation to generation. Alexander’s grandmother - Savitskaya Maria Borisovna is also involved in this sphere, the woman taught students in the musical school. From his early age, the boy was interested in singing and music. When Alexander turned 5 years, he began to take his first steps under the leadership of his father. The boy learned to play the piano and the violin.
At an early age, Alexander Rybak composed his first songs which he sang subsequently. In 1990 the family with the little son moved to Norway where the father got a prestigious job. Alexander Rybak was sent to the musical school, having received the certificate, the young man showed his talents and entered Oslo Conservatory.
Since childhood, Sasha admired three performers who became motivation for him and also examples to follow – Mozart, Beatles, and Sting.
Since childhood, Alexander Rybak participated as the vocalist in the musical of the Norwegian band "A-ha" under the leadership of Morten Harket. During the years of maturing the young guy managed to visit the majority of the European countries, visited China and the USA. Rybak was lucky to perform on the stage with legendary stars of music - Arwa Tellefsen and Hanne Krogh. The world-famous violinist Pinchas Zukerman praised Alexander Rybak for his diligence, talent, and love for music.
The year 2006 was marked for the singer by successful participation in the contest of young talents "Kjempesjansen" which underwent in Norway. There the young man sang his own song "Foolin' " and got the first place for it. Today Alexander Rybak works in the Symphonic Youth Orchestra "Ung Symphony" in Norway as a concertmaster.
Music
In spring of 2009, the whole world watched how Alexander Rybak won the hearts of billions of the audience at the international Eurovision Song Contest 2009 where he sang and performed his own "Fairytale" song playing the violin.
Rybak had set an absolute record (387 points) in the history of this contest and became the winner of it. The singer had soon told that the composition was dedicated to his former beloved girlfriend - Ingrid.
The first album of Alexander Rybak was released in a month after the Eurovision Song Contest. Admirers of the young singer were standing in long lines in the musical shops to buy his CDs. The rapid growth of popularity helped the young unknown man to become famous overnight.
The fatal year 2009 had finished neither with a victory at Eurovision nor with the release of the album. Already in September Alexander Rybak decided to participate in a popular show on the Channel One – "Minute of Fame".
Russia tour which had begun in November was extremely successful. Alexander Rybak managed to visit St. Petersburg, Moscow, Samara, Yekaterinburg and Rostov-on-Don. At the end of the month, the event was held where the singer together with the famous figure skater Alexey Yagudin presented future symbolics for the Olympic Games of 2014 in Sochi.
As the favorite and the singer, Rybak came to the Ukrainian "Star Factory" where he sang together with one of the participants of the project. In January 2010, Alexander Rybak was invited to voice sound the major hero of the Norwegian animated series "How to Train Your Dragon". Several months later the residents of Tallinn could hear a live performance of the actor, the concert took place in the "Nokia" hall, and the demand for the tickets was great.
The studio album "Christmas Tales" is the latest one at the moment, it was released in 2012, but it doesn't mean that the musician has stopped pleasing his fans with new songs.
At the same time, the musician composes new songs for himself as well for other performers. In 2014 the Norwegian musician composed the song "Still Here" for the participant of the Eurovision Song Contest - Franklin Calleja, who was representing Malta.
In 2015 together with the Belarusian colleagues, the musician composed the song under the title "Accent". The Belarusian "Milki" band performed with this composition at the Belarusian Republican stage of selection for Eurovision Song Contest where it got the fourth place.
In 2015 Rybak composed the song which quickly became a hit. His song "Cat" differed in a light romantic sense and repeating plain text. The song and the video quickly found a great number of admirers. In 2016 the video for the song "Ambrazame" was released.
Besides, the musician regularly appears on television, and people are glad to see the singer both on Norwegian and on Russian TV channels. In 2015 the musician became the participant of the show of transformations "One to One!", where he reached the final and took the second place. As well, Rybak became an object for parodies in this TV show.
Plagiarism
Repeatedly since Eurovision Song Contest Alexander Rybak was accused of plagiarism. The songs which are independently composed by the musician often are very similar to already existing compositions. The popular song of Rybak "Fairytale" for its motives reminds very much composition of "Bit Pazari" which sings the Turkish singer Hüseyin Yalin.
The "Abandoned" song became one more reason for scandal, someone has considered that it is too similar to "The Crane Song" of Kirill Molchanov. At the same time Rybak didn't deny this similarity, on the contrary, the representatives of the musician said that it was really the same composition, but the transfer of rights for performing and processing had been done according to the rules. Rybak legally bought the rights for performing and this song can't just be considered plagiarism.
In 2010 Alexander Rybak became the owner of the anti-award "Silver Galosha", then the musician was accused of plagiarism because of the composition "I don't want to miss a thing" which was similar to one of the songs of the "Aerosmith" band.
One of the tracks of the album "No Boundaries" turned out to be very similar to the song by Valery Meladze "How Beautiful You Are Today". It aroused indignation both in the press and in the Network and as it turned out later, it was vainly. Rybak absolutely legally bought the rights for the melody he liked.
Personal life
The young man gained huge popularity, but it wasn’t of much support for his personal life. Ingrid, in honor of whom Alexander Rybak had composed the song which brought him victory left him five years before the Eurovision Song Contest. He tried to restore the relations with the girl when he became popular, but he saw that Ingrid was only earning from their general past. Not to hurt his feelings again Alexander decided not to impose a scandal and didn’t try to prevent her from such actions.
In 2010 Alexander warmly supported the German singer Lena Meyer during the Eurovision Song Contest. He was rehearsing with her and just spent much time near here. The girl won the first place and continued to communicate with the musician. Lovers didn't deny that they were a couple and hinted at the wedding. But this marriage didn't happen.
Today Alexander Rybak says to the journalists that he has a girlfriend but they are not going to marry at the moment and he doesn’t want to reveal her personality to the press.
Alexander Rybak at present
At the beginning of 2018, it became known that the musician was chosen for the second time as the representative of Norway for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest which brought international recognition to the singer.
On the 10th of March of 2018, the singer became the winner of the final of the Norwegian selection tour for potential participants of "Eurovision". Due to this victory, the musician got legal right to present his country at the contest. The composition under the title "That's How You Write a Song" brought him victory at this stage.
In the interview concerning participation in the Eurovision Song Contest for the second time the musician admitted in an interview that he wanted to become someone to be proud of for his native Norway, but at the same time the musician told that chances for the victory were rather small, as for all history of this contest only one person succeeded in this – it was the representative of Ireland - Johnny Logan.
Discography
Today Alexander Rybak's discography contains five studio albums:
- 2009 - "Fairytales"
- 2010 - " Europe’s Skies"
- 2010 - "No Boundaries"
- 2011 - "Visa Vid Vindens Аngar"
- 2012 - «Christmas Tales»
Also, the singer has more than ten separate singles and music videos in his creative biography.
