Brekke

Brekke is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It is located in the northeastern part of the present-day municipality of Gulen in the traditional district of Sogn. The municipality encompassed about 207 square kilometres (80 sq mi) south of the Sognefjorden, centered on the Risnesfjorden arm that reaches to the south from the main fjord.

The municipality of Brekke existed from 1850 until 1861 and then again from 1905 until 1964. The administrative center of the municipality of Brekke was the village of Brekke, located on the southern shore of the Sognefjord, about a 35 kilometres (22 mi) drive from the municipal center of Eivindvik. The main church for the municipality was Brekke Church.

Name

The municipality is named after the old Brekke farm (Old Norse: Brekka) since Brekke Church was located there. The name is identical to the old Norwegian word meaning "slope". Historically, the spelling of the name was not formalized, so spellings such as Breche, Bræcke, and Brække were also used.

Kristian Valen

Kristian Valen (born 13 October 1974) is a comedian, actor, singer and songwriter originally from Stavanger, Norway. Known for comedic impressions, Valen has also pursued a serious music career; his pop music album Listen When Alone was released internationally in Europe and Asia. Valen was asked by Katherine Jackson to perform his megahit “Still Here” at the Jackson Family Foundation’s Forever Michael: A Celebration of an Icon, the one year Michael Jackson memorial show held in 2010 at Beverly Hilton Hotel the home of the Golden Globes in Los Angeles.

Biography

Early life

Son of Inge Valen, who played as a footballer for the team Viking FK, Valen was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a famous sportsman. However, Valen left the world of football when he was 16 and wound up hosting a popular radio show in his native city of Stavanger, Norway. His quick wit and popular on-air impersonations led Valen to the world of comedy. Then he joined The Norwegian Royal Army, before coming home starting his entertainment career.

Alexander Rybak

Alexander Igoryevich Rybak (Russian: Алекса́ндр И́горевич Рыба́к, tr. Aleksandr Igorevich Rybak) or in Belarusian Alyaxandr Igaravich Rybak (Belarusian: Алякса́ндр І́гаравіч Рыба́к, tr. Alyaksandr Iharavich Rybak; born 13 May 1986 in Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist, writer, actor and presenter/host. Representing Norway in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia, Rybak won the contest with 387 points—the highest tally any country has achieved in the history of Eurovision—with "Fairytale", a song he wrote and composed. His debut album, Fairytales, charted in the top 20 in nine European countries, including a No. 1 position in Norway and Russia.

Education

Rybak has been a student at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo since the age of 10. Due to his success in the Eurovision Song Contest, he took a break from his bachelor's degree studies at the institute, but in 2011, he returned to his studies and in June 2012, he graduated from Barratt Due Institute of Music with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance.