Alexander Rybak won the right to represent Norway at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest this past Saturday. After giving it all on stage in the Spektrum Arena, Oslo having caught the flu during the night of the Melodi Grand Prix final. Despite having to leave the afterparty after his health continued to decline, he managed to meet the Norwegian press on Sunday afternoon. He also met with esctoday.com in order to send a message of thanks to those outside of Norway that have been supporting his entry.

SUPPORT

Alexander told the press that he was overwhelmed over the fact that he got 74.4% of the votes. He really wanted to write more autographs and answer all the text messages he received, but he had to apologise to the fans and say he just hadn't got the time, especially now when he got sick.

To esctoday.com,Alexander said that the attention he hasreceived so far from international fans both helped him believe even more in Fairytale, but he also thinks that many Norwegian voters might have been convinced that it was the right song to send to Moscow. Even though he actually likes being an underdog, he doesn'tmind being labelled as one ofthe favourites to win in Moscow. With the backing of the majority of the Nowegian public and the international support, he is very proud to represent Norway, and says that he has been working really hard for this to happen. Meeting the fantastic audience in Oslo Spektrum was a big moment after all the hard work.

THE LADY

The Norwegian media focused on the ex-girlfriend that Alexander is singing about. The truth is that she is now married, and he didn't even think that she was watching Melodi Grand Prix. She has not been in touch with him about the song.

"I'm actually glad that I'm single these days, so that I can sing Fairytale in a much more convincing way" he said."

CHART TOPPER

Fairytale hit the number 1 spot in Norwegian charts last week and this is first time ever in Norway that such a thing happen before the national final. Alexander has actually spent his savings to get all the rights to the song himself, and now he will get all the income from the over 10 000 sales of his single so far.

THE ROAD TO MOSCOW

Alexander will be quite busy over the coming months, during March he will be one of the guests appearing in Bettan's (Elisabeth Andreassen (ESC 82, 85, 94 and 96) tour called Spellemann (The Fiddler) where she will perform song from her latest album with the same name. A total of 11 concerts will be held all over Norway, and Alexander will both accompany Bettan in some of her songs, but also play some of his own songs. At the same time he is working on his fourthcoming and first album, that he hopes will be released some weeks before the final of ESC in Moscow.

As a last comment on the night of the final Alexander said:

"Russia, get ready for me, here I come. And I'm really looking forward to practice my Russian again."

Alexander Rybak performsFairytale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8JRtGMBUz0

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