A young violinist and singer from Norway, Alexander Rybak, captured the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, smashing the record for the most points awarded in the competition's 54-year history.

"Thank you so much, Russia. You are just great, thank you," proclaimed a weepy Rybak, speaking in Russian from the stage after the result was announced Saturday night.

"You are the greatest public in the world," he said before launching into a repeat performance of the light-hearted love song Fairy Tale.

Viewers from 42 countries voted on the final 25 songs, with Norway garnering a record 387 points. The last time the Scandinavian country won was in 1995. As a result, it will host next year's event.

It was a nice gift ahead of Norway's national day, celebrated every May 17. Rybak invited his countrymen to greet him at Oslo's main airport on Sunday night.

For the first time ever, crew members of the International Space Station gave the command to start telephone voting in a video message from the orbiting laboratory.

Iceland came in second while Azerbaijan took third place.

Rybak, who left Belarus when he was four years old with his musician parents, was modest about his win.

"To be honest, I still think I'm far from being the best singer in this year's competition," the 23-year-old musician told reporters after the show.

"But I just had a story I wanted to tell. And I guess people liked that story and I also had a violin. I guess that helps."

The annual event, known for its trashy stagings, is watched by an estimated audience of 100 million.

Russia's hopes were on a the ballad Mamo, partially performed in Ukrainian by a Ukrainian-born artist Anastasia Prikhodko, but it landed far behind in 11th place.

Burlesque artiste Dita Von Teese, ex-wife of rocker Marilyn Manson, lent a little more skin to the festivities during Germany's act by straddling a shiny lip-shaped black sofa.

Von Teese stripped off her top down to sparkly nipple warmers — a more demure version of her original act after the European Broadcasting Union told her to keep it family friendly.

Britain was going into the contest as a favourite but it could only manage a fifth-place finish, with singer Jade, despite composer Andrew Lloyd Webber writing her song.

Bookmakers had also favoured Greece, which staged an elaborately choreographed performance involving a giant flashing treadmill.

  یوروویژن امسال در مسکو برگزار شد و الکساندر ریبک از کشور نروژ با آهنگ Fairytale نفر اول شد که ۳۸۷ امتیاز به خود اختصاص داده بود.

نفر دوم یوهانا از آیسلند ۲۱۸ امتیاز توسط آهنگ Is It True بدست آورد و همچنین سومین نفر افتخار ایرانیان آرش و آیسل با آهنگ آلویز می باشد. هر چند این افتخار به نام کشور آذربایجان ثبت شد ولیکن حد اقل ما می دانیم که آرش ایرانی است و توانسته به صحنه بین المللی راه یابد.

در زیر خلاصه ای از بیوگرافی نفر اول را برای علاقمندان آورده ام.

Rybak, born in Belorus and immigrated to Norway made a sweeping win and became the favorite of many voters around the world. The winner of the 2009 Eurovision winner charmed the European voters with his youthful smiley face, wonderful violin and happy song.

Here is how the first three spots were divided between the Eurovision top three winners.

1. Norway
2. Iseland
3. Azerbaijan

Alexander Rybak won (with 387 points) the 54th Eurovision in Russia 2009, singing Fairytale, a song inspired by Russian and Norwegian folk music. The song was composed and written by Rybak himself. The song is performed with the modern folk dance company Frikar. The song has received good reviews with a 6 out of 6 from Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. In an ESCtoday poll he was the lead in a poll with 71.3% to get into the final from the semi he was in.

Rybak achieved a clean sweep, gaining the top score of all nine voting districts, ending with a combined televote and jury score of 747,888, whereas the runner up Tone Damli Aaberge received a combined score of merely 121,856.

Alexander Rybak won (with 387 points) the 54th Eurovision in Russia 2009, singing Fairytale, a song inspired by Russian and Norwegian folk music. The song was composed and written by Rybak himself. The song is performed with the modern folk dance company Frikar. The song has received good reviews with a 6 out of 6 from Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. In an ESCtoday poll he was the lead in a poll with 71.3% to get into the final from the semi he was in.

Rybak achieved a clean sweep, gaining the top score of all nine voting districts, ending with a combined televote and jury score of 747,888, whereas the runner up Tone Damli Aaberge received a combined score of merely 121,856.

The song competed in the second semi-final and won a place in the Eurovision final. He later went on to win the competition, even exceeding the points expected and breaking the previous record of 292 points scored by Lordi in 2006, finishing with a grand total of 387 points, 169 more then the runner up of Iceland and 95 points more then the previous record holders, Finland, with theit band lordi.

Now Norway will host the Eurovision 2010. According to the rules of Eurovision the winner country gets to host the following year's contest. This is a wonderful opportunity for the winner country as it puts the country in the European spotlight, brings hundreds of thousands of tourists and helps the economy. People call from their cell phones and vote like it's with American Idol. However, you can't vote for the representative of your own country. This constitutes the 50 percent of the votes. The other 50 percent comes from a professional jury.