The dancing is a norwegian dance Hallingdal dance so it is cultural too. We are very proud of him

Fun fact, according to the system they where using that year, it was the song that got the most points ever

The melody and the dancing were spiced up with folk music. He is proof that traditional music can live on.

Fun fact: the dancers were doing a traditional Norwegian dance called Hallingdans at least parts of it was, there was parts specific to the song. Yes the hat is a part of the dance

Rybak is a classicly trained Norwegian-Belarusian musician, the dancers are among the best dancers in Norway (at least of that style at the time). Officially it is the melody that is to be evaluated, but in practice it's often politics (some countries often give eachother good scores), song, dancing, etc

Fun fact. Alexander Rybak audition for Norwegian Idol in 2005 and failed to go threw. The judges thought he was not a good singer 🤣🤣 they should eat their hat!

Ther is a distinction between a 'singing competition' where an artist's singing ability is judged, and a 'song competition' where it is the quality of the song itself which is judged. For Eurovision, each participating country submits an original song - so it can't have been a hit in their own country prior to thecompetition. The costumes and staging are also important factors in the performance of the song. Not only is the live audience huge- but the programme is aired live across Europe. This year's competition (2023) was watched by 162 million people!

Alexander Rybak is amazing. My sister was nine in 2009 and was so happy when he won. Me and my sister listened to Fairytale so often in the months/year after and our parents were driven mad😂 Now i listen to it again and all the good feelings rush over me like a nostalgic tsunami❤

This final happened the day before our constitution day, where we met some Americans who asked what was going on. When I told them we were all celebrating the Eurovision victory they believed me

9:37 that stadium is "nothing", the eurovision has viewership of about 162 million, which is about 50% more than the Superbowl

As a Eurovision fan myself, I'm gonna telling you: you stepped into a very right place to make reaction videos. :) The show is lovely, and the level of talents are so unique and cool, hope to see you doing more stuff definitely. Great content!

Except for the lyrics being in English, this song is extremely Norwegian and that makes it even more special for us. Because the most famous Norwegian song of all time, is «Take on me», but that has nothing to do with Norwegian culture. This song won _because_ it was Norwegian. You might also check out Alessandra - Queen of Kings. It has many of the same qualities and everyone seems to agree that she should've won this years Eurovision Song Contest. Very strong Scandinavian tones, almost so you can smell the Norwegian taiga.

The violin is so extremely used in Russia/Belarus, Norway & Sweden & Danmark 🎼👍 Btw Alexander Rybak made some amazing song in Russian after he won the Eurovision❤️

this is my favourite eurovision song ever, this is just a masterpiece honestly!!!

The dancers are doing a "Halling" dance. It's a traditional Norwegian folk dance. It could be a good subject for one of your videos.

In the past, it was normal for a song to be in the native language in the national competition, and then have an English one in the finale. Some opted rot not have an English version. No, most song are in English from the start. Also, it was the strings on his bow that snapped, not the violin

Norwegian folk dance is just backflips, pushups and hat kicks to most non-Norwegians. Give Tyler a break , he does well as usual :)

2009 was a good year in Eurovision! Loved the winner, but also Iceland and Estonia ❤

This guys looks so genuine its adorable

5:14 its Norwegian folk dance

You talk TOO much

Yes people in other countries liked it, that's how you win, you can't vote for your own country (and the point-system is balanced so all participating countries have the same "say")

Alexander Rybak is also the norwegian voice of Hiccup in how to train you dragon

Norwegian lady here. The night Alex won was AMAZING. Ho-ly mo-ly! It was the night before our National Day too, so we joked that we'd gotten a new national anthem :D PS: 8:00 it wasn't just one of his strings that broke. He broke most of them with each performance.

Back then I listened this song everyday. I still love song. Thank you 💖🇫🇮

This song was really the one who revived my trust in Eurovision for some years and I had a list with a lot of eurovision songs from that year and 7-9 years forward. Most of the artists are choosing to sing in English, but there's still many who choose to go with their own languages, but more often than not they do better with English lyrics than local ones. Sometimes the artists perform in their local contests in their local language, but translate the song for the big contest. The audience you see is only the ones that got tickets, the rest of Europe watches live from their home. The Jury is giving thir own points, but the final decission goes to viewers who gets time to vote.

There's a guy called Schlager - Lucas. He has all you need to know. And you can watch all the winners through years and all of Norway's competeting Songs through the all times...

Both the violin play and the dancing is based on Norwegian folk traditions. Cool that he won, but now go listen to ABBA's contribution from 1973 or1974; Waterloo! Real fun, and changed Eurovision Song Contest to a great deal.

This is deserved winner of Eurovision 2009. Top 5 Eurovision song in KZfaq views and Spotify streams. Everybody who follows Eurovision know this song, it's iconic. But still my favourite song of that year is from Estonia.

I was 17 in 2009 and absolutely in love with him 😂 this is still one of my favourite Eurovision songs to this day and I actually listen to it all the time - they aren’t allowed to play live in Eurovision so all the strings could be broken he would still have been doing the motions hahahah

I got to see it in 1988. The young lady from Switzerland sang in French and won it. You've heard of her: Celine Dion. Prior to that, she was building a career in Canada but she had no international exposure. That was what opened up her career and put her on the map, internationally. Pretty sure one of her parents is originally Swiss. Sometimes, the rules are that you have to sing in a native language for your country; that was the case in 1988. Sometimes, you can sing in whatever language you want. In 1974, ABBA won Eurovision, singing in English. That launched their careers, internationally. If you've seen "The Martian," he's disassembling the MAV to the tune of ABBA's "Waterloo;" that was their winning song. These days, it's not just the vocal performance: it's the whole package. Music, dancing, stage production, etc. Eurovision is a HUGE deal over there. Will Ferrell looked into it, some years ago, and loved it. He subsequently did a movie around it; check out the final song "Husavik (My Hometown)." It'll blow your mind.

I like the video when AR sings as the winner and in the middle of the song he shouts out something in russian. Just so much feelings in that!

He is a treasure,a real artist.

Loved this reaction. Would be cool to see a some more reactions of Norwegian music. I recommend AURORA, in particular I recommend you to watch her performance of her song Runaway at the Nobel peace price concert. She takes influence from Norwegian folk music in her songs and vocal style which gives her music a unique sound.

Our best and funniest in all of the Eurovision Contest performances.💞🇳🇴

I love Alexander Rydak so much. I've been listening to his songs for some years now, and Fairytale is still one of my favourites.

idk why is it only me or this guy just literally pauses at the best momment which kills the vibe

If you want to watch a powerful and breathtaking Norwegian performance, check out Aurora's "Murder Song" from the Nobel Peace concert. Only Aurora would/could perform in bare feet on a concert like that, at 16!

YAY! Finally we get some Eurovision! We also won in 85 and 95 too. There is so much good eurovision material. You should check out the flashmob we did when norway hosted in 2010

Tyler: "He doesn't sound Norwegian." That's cos Alexander is from Belarus! He moved to Norway with his family.

My tip would be taking a look at that very old traditional dance in a video. These guys normally dance around in a circle and are eventually expected to do a high jump and kick a hat off a stick held quite high to impress his girl (...or guy. we're Norway after all). ;)

I find it funny that you sound genuinely surprised about a song that won a continent wide contest being good

I saw it live on TV and it was AMAZING! Singing, lyrics, performance, costumes simply perfection! And he was so humble and very sympathetic!

You really managed to pick a great song to judge! One of the best 😍

I'd suggest listening to more than 5 seconds before pausing and asking if it's just instrumental.

In my opinion, Fairytale is top song of the whole Eurovision. I love it so much.

Once you go down that Eurovision rabbit hole, there is no going back.. but my goodness Eurovision reactions will get you SO many views, Enjoy!

This is so funny, so American haha. This was very entertaining, and I hope you keep reacting to Eurovision.

I was at my neighbor's (and friend's) house, and we were busy in the kitchen while the TV was on in the background during the Norwegian contest. Then Alexander came on. We stopped what we were doing, looking at each other in awe. Never heard about this kid, but we knew he'd win. Not just in Norway, but the international one, too. I had no idea that it would set a record in most top scores in ESC history, because - well - it's Norway...

As a dancer/gymnast yes tumbling can be scary which was the “back flip” that the dancer did and truly it isn’t scary you put so much trust into your self in your first back hand spring that by the time you do layouts there is nothing to fear

As a Norwegian, I’m proud of Alexander rybak. He’s Norwegian gold.

well the arena is huge but they also perform for around 50 milion people through the television

A lot of songs in recent years are in English so that they can increase their winning chances, since then most people can understand the lyrics, but because of this you are kinda special if you do it in your native language, so in the last 2-3 years the winners have been people doing it in their native language.

So happy that you enjoyed this, it really deserved every single point it got and was such a worthy winner. If you are ever interested in a couple of good eurovision winners from the next door neighbor country (Sweden) I suggest you check out Måns Zelmerlöf "Heroes" and Loreen "Euphoria". Fun eurovision fact: Australia participated in this contest a few times because based on their enormous interest in Eurovision

Fun fact: the string on his violin did *not* break. What you are seeing is ''hairs'' coming from wear on the violin bow which accumulates when he is playing :)

Bro doesn't know that he was only 23 years old when he performed this. Not only that, he can play the violin, the piano, he can write pieces, he's a composer. Just search him up. Also do a video on Duncan Laurance with his song "Arcade" when he won the Eurovision contest in 2019.

He's a trained violinist actually.🙂

You should do more eurovision reactions! :) Huge fanbase out there - so you'll get a lot of views as well.

Man, for a Norwegian, this song was an absolute pest when it played on the radio. There was no escape. In the aftermath, this song is actually GO good. Alex is amazing on the fele.

At around 2: 35 in the performance, you can see one of the dancers kicking a hat off a stick. You saw this reference in the "This is Norway" video. The dancing in this is called "Hallingdans", a Norwegian folk dance, you should check that out.

Another year Norway won, was in 1985, with Bobbysocks. I was an UN-soldier in Lebanon at that time, well... I had this weekend off, so I was in Eilat diving. That evening, at the hotel, my fellow soldiers sat in the bar, while I found a more quiet place, watching the Eurovision Song Contest, silently talking to a woman (in English) for an hour. When Norway won, I jumped up and shouted to my friends in the bar that Norway won (in norwegian!). The fun part is that the young woman turned towards me and asked (in norwegian); "Are you norwegian?" Yep, she was from Bergen, and we had a very, very nice evening celebrating the win. 😁

FYI. They only sing one song. And there is only a Semi final and a final performance. There are 40 countries performing in 2 semis where 10 go through in each. And the final has 26 entries. 20 from the semis, 5 countries that are exempt from the semis (england, france, germany, italy, and spain) and lastly the host country

I'm hooked on your channel, had to subscribe finally! It helps that you're low key adorable.

Still listen to Fairytale at least 8 times a year. The song always makes my happy 🥰😀🥰!!!!!!!!!!

And people thought it was nerve wracking performing something in front of the class and then we have this dude💀✋

If you want to hear a Norwegian Eurovision winning song in Norwegian, I would recommend Let it Swing by Bobbysocks. It was the first time we won in 1985. Fairytale was the third and last time we won.

eurovision is huge and by far the biggest music contest not only are there a ton watching it in the arena but there are about 100-200 mil people watching it live yearly

This year ESC was so great for me and Germany bc last year we where last place (26/25) and now 11 it even was one day before my B-day

This song got stuck in my head for 2 weeks

I love Alexander’s facial expressions with his performance

bro's yappin for 7 minute straight 💀

This was such a good reaction - tak! You should do more ESC reactions :)

This got a huge amount of votes . He was cute and talented😅😅😅😅

Check Angelina Jordan!

The violin-playing and the Halling-dance in the background is very Norwegian.

4:26 Bro you paused at the worst possible moment lol

He plays a Hardingfele, it differs from the ordinary violin by having 8 strings. Four normal ones and four underlying strings, that makes a very special kind of tone. Norway also won in 1985. Then we had two female artists who called themselves Bobbysocks. They performed a song called "La det swinge" or "Let it Swing". In 1985 we still had to perform in our native language, so the chance for any Nordic country to win at that time, was much lower than after we were allowed to perform in English. The songs were allways recorded in English, though, so Bobbysocks performed partly in English when they sang their victory version. Here is a link to an English version from 1986: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fsmjd8lmqNDQaIE.html This is from the perfomance in Eurovision 1985: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bM5iYLR3x9q8pIE.html

I highly recommend you watch the other two winning songs from Norway. The first one is in Norwegian, and the second one is almost entirely instrumental, which never happened before or after from any winner. 1985 - Bobbysocks! - La de swinge 1995 - Secret Garden - Nocturne

Rybak's song is the 'perfect' Eurovision song. It's not my favorite of all time, and maybe not even my favorite in 2009 but it encapsulates everything about Eurovision plus it's one of the highest voted songs of all time by both juries and the public. The performance is as iconic as the song, and one doesn't outshine the other

Hey Tyler. I believe they still air Eurovision on Logo TV. And I believe they broadcast it on KZfaq now as well.

The criteria given to the jury to rank each song by are: Composition and originality of the song Quality of the performance on stage Vocal capacity of the performer(s) Overall impression of the act I think in 2009 they had only jury votes. Today the results are 50/50 jury votes/ televotes. Each country has its own jury and televoting. Please react to 2006 Eurovision winner, Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah" 😄

i really enjoyed your reaction, i would live if you delved a bit more into the contest. please react to other eurovision songs :)

"Imagine a typical American" This guy is the first thing I'll think of lol.

Eurovision is really big, nowadays you can see it from all over the world, and you can vote also for your favorite song. It’s the biggest music competition in the world

Alexander Rybak is awesome

I loved this song and it still makes me happy whenever I see this performance. It has a kind of nordic folk music vibe to it with the violin and melody.

Yesss keep up the good work, there is plenty of good material to react to 👏👏

The fiddle he use is called a Hardanger fiddle. It is Norway's national instrument.

Check out some other Alexander Rybak songs. Some he has done the same song in different versions for English, Russian and Belarussian.

Come on man.. you are not just an average american any longer.. you are one of us! You have crossed the line into pagan myths.. Thor is hammering around you, and Odin is praying for you, while Hugin and Munin is always looking after you.

My friend showed me this 2 years ago and I am still mesmerized by the song!!

it is NOT a singing competition... it's SONG contest!

8:0 It happens quite often in violin preformances with high notes per second. It also happens with pieces like summer by Vivaldi, and flight of the bumblebee. Usually the strings are quite cheap to restring, and the string is horse hair

Fairytale is the greatest Eurovision song ever. Lots of greats, but none as good as rybak.

Why we don’t have an accent is bc our 16 years of school is a lot of learning English so I’ve not known anybody that has an accent in Norway bc it’s so easy for us to learn languages

Another good song is 2015's winner, 'Heroes', sung by Måns Zelmerlöw of Sweden. It has some amazing visuals too

Norway also got the record for the most points ever received with this song.

3:42 i've never understood why americans think they don't have an accent. if anything, british people wouldn't have an accent considering that's where the language came from.

I saw a clip of this song in reels and honestly i love this song ❤ I listen it almost 5-6 times a day❤

"Infectious," indeed; so is the clap....