Songs without frontiers

The 2009 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest has been won by Norway's 23 year old contestant Aleksander Rybak with the self-penned "Fairytale". The young singer-songwriter of Bielorus origins was a strong favourite and came first in Moscow with 387 votes beating Iceland into second place (218 votes) and Azerbaijan 3rd (207 votes). Rybak, son of a pianist and violin player, begaun playing both instruments at 5 years old. The rousing number, sung in English, has a strong melody and chorus as well as a catchy folk style violin line as played by Rybak himself on stage.

This year's contest held in Moscow was the most expensive to date at an estimated cost of 42 million euros. The show was also somewhat overshadowed by the Gay Pride parade held on the same day as the final in the Russian capital, which saw several arrests. the parade had not been approved by the city's mayor Iuri Luzhkov.
Mr. Luzhov..zero points.