Alexander Rybak - The Second Coming?

Eurovision Song Contest 2009: Alexander Rybak celebrates. Photograph: Dmitry Kostyukov/AFP/Getty Images

You may or may not be aware that Norway won this year's Eurovision Song Contest with their entry Alexander Rybak and his crooning/fiddle-toting/catchy smash, Fairytale. Pretty good for one of Europe's smaller nations, who were erstwhile not known for producing international pop sensations and usually over-shadowed by their Scandinavian neighbours in that department (sorry, but Abba beats A-Ha hands down). But still, when I talk to people I find myself thinking... he won the Eurovision Song Contest for Christ's sake, not the Nobel Peace Prize. Coming from Britain, where Terry Wogan's derision of the greasy backing dancers and all too frequent bum notes is an integral part of the commentary, I was under the impression that no one takes it seriously. And we all know that the voting is politically motivated and has very little to do with the songs (see - Britain's null points the year of the Iraq war)... Even the sheer cheesiness of the music and the campness of the artists is enough to render itself laughable, surely. As my French colleague said, if it's a woman they are ridiculously slutty and if they're a man they are "deeply gay".
But nevertheless, it's a big deal here. And I'm not going to take that away from them. It's just a complete culture shock. Check out this article from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/may/18/norway-eurovision-song-contest-heidi-stephens
It turns out that a Guardian journalist wrote a review of Eurovision on her blog, saying, among other things, that she hoped Alexander Rybak would get poked in the eye with his violin bow. Now, to be sure that's a bit of classic journo over-exaggeration, but little did she expect the way the Norwegians were to react. You can see in the article that two of the national newspapers here, VG and Dagbladet, picked up the story, spinning it as if The Guardian had been cruelly slating their little Alexander out of spite, presumably because Britain always does so badly and we are jealous. One commentator made the point that yes, Norwegians 'do understand irony', which is of course true, but they also have the inclination to take themselves and matters of national pride extremely seriously, which to a briton is cringe-worthy and uncomfortable and Just Not British. Self-derision is practically a national sport.
The best commentary left by a Norwegian comes at the end of the article:
Me1981 said: "Heidi we Norwegian DO understand and use irony, we have a very good sense of humour...the thing is, when we all read you blogg the first time we were drunk out of our minds..and when norwegians get drunk,not only do we get so waisted we're lucky if we're able to walk the next day-but we also get very excited..So if you felt attacked..believe me none of us even remember regist. on Guardian websight in the first place. I only found out since the sight was still showing on my computer the next day..I was like"What the ¤#&¤#? When did I reg here??"

Sums it up?!

In future I think I will pass all comment on this guy - if I let on to anyone that I hate his song I'll probably be deported...