Oleksandr Ihorovych Rybak is a Norwegian violinist and singer of Belarusian descent.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on May 13, 1986, in Minsk to a family of musicians. His mother, Natalia, was a pianist, and his father, Igor, was a violinist.
From childhood, he grew up in an environment surrounded by folk and classical music. His passion for creativity emerged very early—by the age of 5, he was already playing the violin and piano, singing, and trying his hand at writing his own songs.
When Rybak was 6 years old, his family moved to Norway—his father had been offered a job there. Later, he returned to Minsk for a short time—about half a year—and attended school at the Belarusian State Academy of Music.
The family settled in the Norwegian town of Nessoden, near Oslo. There, Rybak completed his secondary education at the Videregaende Rud School of Music, Dance, and Drama, and later graduated from the Barratt Due Music Academy in Oslo, where he studied violin. He received his bachelor’s degree in June 2012.
He also studied at the conservatory in Oslo.
In 2020, he began studying at Columbia College Chicago in the Master of Fine Arts program.
Career
Rybak began performing at a young age. Together with his father, he starred in a Norwegian musical by Morten Harket, the lead singer of “a-ha.” He toured Europe, the United States, and China with the musical.
He has also performed on stage alongside well-known musicians, including Arve Tellefsen, Hanne Krog, Knutsen, and Ludwigen.
2005 – 2010
In 2006, he won the Norwegian talent competition Kjempesjansen with his original song “Foolin'”.
In addition to his solo performances, he worked as an accompanist with the Ung Symfoni youth symphony orchestra. Rybak himself has also said that he has contracts with more than 20 European countries.
He cited Mozart, The Beatles, and Sting as some of his main musical influences.
Rybak is also a recipient of the Anders Jares Foundation’s cultural award.
The violinist rose to fame in 2009 after winning the Eurovision Song Contest. On May 16, he won the contest in Moscow, Russian Federation (RF), scoring a then-record 387 points. This was a new record in the contest’s history—the previous best score had been 292 points.
The singer himself said that he dedicated “Fairytale,” which he performed at Eurovision, to his ex-girlfriend Ingrid Berg Mehus.
After winning Eurovision, Rybak began appearing even more frequently at various venues and on various shows. On May 29, he was a judge at the “New Voices of Belarus” competition in Minsk, and in July he performed at the “Slavic Bazaar” festival in Vitebsk.
That same year, 2009, he also performed at a concert for Nobel Prize laureates in Oslo, where he sang “Fairytale” in a new arrangement accompanied by a symphony orchestra. In addition, he joined the Ukrainian TV show “Star Factory.”
On September 6, Rybak also appeared on the show “Minute of Fame” on Russia’s “Channel One.”
In late 2009, Rybak went on a concert tour of Russia—from November 24 to 29, he performed in Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. On November 30, he took the stage on Red Square in Moscow, where he participated in the unveiling of the symbols for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
2010 – 2015
In early 2010, he was working on a new album, and he also voiced the main character in the Norwegian version of the animated film *How to Train Your Dragon*.
On March 8, Rybak gave a major concert in Tallinn.
In June of that same year, he released his second album, *No Boundaries*. He also appeared at the *Muz-TV Awards*, where he won the award for “Breakthrough of the Year.”
In October 2010, Rybak performed in Finland at the “Russian Romance” festival. He also released the album *Heavens of Europe* and a music video for the song of the same name. Later, a Belarusian version of the track was released, followed by a separate music video for it.
In 2011, Rybak released the album *Visa Vid Vindens Ängar*.
In September 2013, he gave a major solo concert in Vilnius—the program included his own songs and popular classics.
That same year, he continued to work with musicians from Romania and Turkey, joined a Norwegian television music project, worked on the musical “Troll,” and conducted master classes and performed with music school students in Scandinavia and the United States of America (USA).
He also recorded a violin part for the song “Gorka Hrabrost” by Serbian singer Maria Šerifović and served on the jury of the “Singing Cities” competition in Belarus.
In early 2014, Rybak filmed a music video in Norway for the song “Into A Fantasy,” which he recorded for the animated film “How to Train Your Dragon 2.”
That same year, he released two more new works—the dance song “What I Long For” was played on television, and Solly Tangent performed his original composition “I Dine Hender.”
Rybak has also worked with other artists. In Belarus, he helped create the song “Accent” for the band Milki, which performed it at the national selection for “Eurovision 2015” and ultimately placed fourth.
In addition, in that same year, 2014, he wrote another Eurovision song—“Still Here”—for the Maltese artist Galle.
2015 – present
In 2015, Rybak appeared on the Russian impersonation show “One to One!” and made it to the finals, where he took second place.
In 2018, he once again represented Norway at Eurovision —this time with his own song, “That’s How You Write a Song.” With this song, Rybak made it to the finals, and his performance centered on the theme of self-belief and modern visual effects—on stage, he “played” virtual instruments. In the end, he finished in 15th place.
