Alexander Rybak took second place in the Norwegian Eurovision selection
The Minsk native participated in the main European music competition twice.
Alexander Rybak performing. Video screenshot
Alexander Rybak took second place in the Norwegian Eurovision selection, which took place last week.
The Belarusian artist took to the stage with a violin, which brought him a brilliant victory in Moscow in 2009.
With his song "Rise," he received 66 points from the jury and 126 points from the TV viewers, totaling 192 points.
Jonas Lov won the national selection with the song "Ya, ya, ya" with 265 points (96+169).
However, the contestant who took third place scored 127 points.
Alexander won the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow in 2009 with the song "Fairytale," scoring more points than any other song in the contest's history at the time. In 2018, he participated again and took 15th place.
Norway also won Eurovision in 1985. Then "Bobbysocks" won with the song "La det swinge," and in 1995, Secret Garden with "Nocturne." The latter song is probably a record holder among contest winners — it has only 24 words. Fionnuala Sherry's violin playing makes up most of the composition.
This year, Eurovision will take place in Austria (final on May 16). Ireland, Iceland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Slovenia have decided not to participate in protest against Israel's participation.
Belarus has not participated in the contest since 2021. At that time, the band "Galasy ZMesta" was excluded due to the political subtext of their song, and since 2022, Belarus and Russia have been excluded due to the war in Ukraine.
Belarus's highest achievement at Eurovision is Dmitry Koldun's 6th place in 2007.