This joyful song of our countryman has reached a record number of views* in his career. 

* on his YouTube channel

Cover picture: Music video “Kotik” of Rybak has got 50 million views on YouTube. Photo: personal archive

Source: Komsomolskaya Pravda, 11.01.2017. Text: Эвика ОТТО. 
Translated by Mónika Menyhért, Revision by Anastasia Silakova
Thanks to the Rybakoficial LatinoAmericaFanclub for finding the article. 

After YouTube’s counter showed 50 million views, Alexander Rybak hurried to thank his team and fans on Instagram.

“… Together we have demonstrated once again that an artist doesn’t have to move to Moscow, it is not necessary to adjust to the stupid radio format, there is no need to bribe  radio stations and various cool producers and lose yourself in this big show business. The most important thing is to believe in your dreams and trust those who believe in you” – Alexander Rybak 

“Komsomolskaya Pravda” contacted Alexander Rybak, who is currently in Oslo.

– “Kotik” – The first music video in your career with this result. What emotions do you have now?

– Quality is not always reflected in the number of views. I would not say that “Kotik” is one of my deepest songs. I made this video, to make people smile, and luckily the idea worked.

Yes, it is the first time I have that result and it is especially important because this song is in Russian. Before this, it was the song “Europe’s Skies” with almost 32 milllion hits, released 6 years ago (2010), after the victory in Eurovision, that had the record number of views .   At that time it was also a good result, as the Internet was not yet as developed as it is now. And if we talk about emotions, describing them is difficult. First of all, the first thing standing behind these millions of views is the love and appreciation of my work by my audience. This is the most important. That’s what I work for.

– What do you think was the big trick? After all, you wrote that you have reached this success without any “stupid format” and cool producers.

– I had a funny experience with so-called radio formats. When I wrote my first song “Fairytale” and went to a radio channel in Germany, I was told: “It’s out of the format, you have to remove the violin and this silly beat”. Of course, I did not do any of that and after a while I won Eurovision with this song. (Laughs). I was successful because I didn’t try to adapt to the format and to copy other artists. I just believed in my idea, that’s it.

– Who contributed to the video shooting?

 – The director of the video was Rustam Romanov. I think he is one of the best video directors because he listens to the artists’ ideas. He doesn’t want to be a star himself like some other directors in Moscow I have worked with. Artists trust Rustam, so when he gives advice or orders, we know it is for a reason. I worked on the video with a great team: My producer Andrei Guzel, the cameraman Anton Trushnikov,  a very beautiful actress Dasha and the entire movie crew. All of them are professionals in their job. This song has a very talented producer, but I will not name him at his request, and the co-author was the Belarusian Slava Rakitin.

– Has the number of fans increased?

– The number of the fans hasn’t increased only because of this video. First of all, it was my big desire to work in Russia and in my home country Belarus that influenced the situation. I have 330.000 subscribers on YouTube and 860.000 followers on Facebook. And these followers are not bought! This last year, I have also been working on the promotion of my Instagram,  therefore, I would be happy to get more followers from  Belarus and Russia there.