Twenty-five performers from across Europe competed in Moscow in a musical bonanza that is one of the most watched annual television events in the world, despite being written off by some as European kitsch.
"Fairytale," penned and performed by Rybak, blew away competition from Iceland's Yohanna, who finished second, and Azerbaijan's AySel & Arash, who was third.
Alexander Rybak blows competition away (Photo: AFP)
The duo representing Israel, Mira Awad and Noa, came 16 with their song, "There Must Be Another Way," an appeal for peace and harmony sung in Arabic, Hebrew and English.
"Obviously we were hoping to be ranked higher," Awad told Ynet after the event. "But that's the way things are, there's nothing you can do about it and it's not worth dwelling on.
"We enjoyed ourselves tremendously today, we've had the best energies so far, we've done all we could and from here on everything is in Allah's hands."