Eurovision winner “Fairytale” and its mastermind Alexander Rybak wrote the history of Norwegian music. On this week’s list, he went straight to tenth place on the official UK charts UK Top 40.

Writing a history of Norwegian music

With his Norwegian Grand Prix winning entry “Fairytale”, Rybak followed in the footsteps of Titanic, a-ha, Lene Marlin and Madcon, who were the only Norwegian acts before him to reach a high position in the UK Top 40.

In comparison, Norway’s two previous Eurovision winners came; “La Det Swinge” with Bobbysocks (1985) and “Nocturne” with Secret Garden (1995) did not even enter the top 40 of the UK singles chart. However, “La Det Swinge” rose to 44th after a win in 1985.

It has been 12 years since a Grand Prix winner last topped the list. In 1997, it was the British winner, “Love Shine A Light” with Katrina And The Waves, who took third place as best. The last time a Eurovision winner topped the UK Top 40 was in 1982 when Nicole represented West Germany and won the final with “Ein Bißchen Frieden”, which went on to become a country hit across the European continent.

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BBC reports that Rybak’s chart success was based solely on downloads as the single had not been released for sale in the UK.

Alexander Rybak is now the fifth Norwegian artist to climb so high on the UK singles charts. A feat that neither Röyksopp, Kings Of Convenience nor Ida Maria, three other Norwegian names who had success in the UK, could achieve, although they all achieved success at the bottom of the charts (however, they reached higher positions in the album charts).

Röyksopp have never climbed higher than 16th in the UK Top 40, which they managed with “Eple” in 2003. Ida Maria rose to 13th with “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked” in last August.

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Nothing can match a-ha

No other Norwegian artist can match a-ha, who has had a total of 23 singles on the UK singles charts. Among them, 18 people ranked in the Top 40, and nine of them entered the top 10. The last, “Analog”, reached tenth place in 2006.

However, it was Titanic who were first to come out with their Santana tribute “Sultana”, with which they reached a worthy fifth place in 1971, a position that Lene Marlin touched with “Sitting Down Here” in 1999 and which Madcon repeated until August 2008 with cover version of “Beggin'”.

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Norwegians top the list as members of bands of other nationalities than Norwegians. Among them are the British groups Sailor and The Wombats. Norwegian Georg Kajanus (Georg Hultgreen) was a Sailor frontman who reached the UK Top 40 three times in the 1970s (with second and seventh being their highest positions). The Wombats, with Norway’s Tord Øverland-Knudsen on guitar, had four singles enter the top 40, but none reached higher than 13th.

It remains to be seen whether Alexander Rybak climbs even higher in the UK Top 40 next week, or whether the UK has reached saturation point with this year’s Eurovision winners.

“Fairytale” also topped a number of other official singles charts in Europe during the day, and this week was at number one in Sweden and Greece, while the single peaked at number two in Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Ireland. In addition, Rybak is ranked fifth in Belgium. “Fairytale” took the top spot on a number of European iTunes lists for the week’s most downloaded songs, a trend that accelerated as soon as the Grand Prix win became a fact last Saturday.

The UK Top 40 is considered to be one of the two most important charts in the world together Billboard Top 100which is the official alternative in the US.