The song "Fairytale" written and performed by Alexander Rybak won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 for Norway, and is the first single from Rybak's debut album Fairytales.^[1][2]

In February 2009, Norwegian media reported that "Fairytale" is about Rybak's ex-girlfriend Ingrid Berg Mehus whom he got to know through the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo.^[3][4][5] Rybak has since confirmed this. At a press conference in May 2009 he revealed that the song's inspiration came from the Hulder, a beautiful female creature from Scandinavian folklore, who lures young men to her, and then may curse them for all time.^[6] The Russian-language version of the song is entitled "Skazka" (Russian: Сказка).

The song was elected through the Norwegian festival Melodi Grand Prix 2009 on 21 February, winning in the biggest landslide of the contest's history,^[7] and competed against eighteen other Eurovision entries in the second semi-final on 14 May 2009, where it qualified for the final. The final took place on 16 May and the song won with 387 points – a new ESC record. It was Norway's third Eurovision win.

The backing dancers for the Eurovision performance, Sigbjørn Rua, Torkjell Lunde Børsheim and Hallgrim Hansegård, are from the Norwegian dance company Frikar,^[8] performing the folk dance halling. The backing singers, Jorunn Hauge^[9] and Karianne Kjærnes,^[10] wore long pink dresses designed by Norwegian designer Leila Hafzi.^[11]

The song also debuted on the Norwegian Singles Chart on the week of 11 February 2009 at number 3,^[13] before rising to number one on the following week, the week of the Melodi Grand Prix final.^[14] This was the first time that the Melodi Grand Prix winner reached number 1 before winning the contest. The song remained at number 1 for 8 consecutive weeks.^[15] The song has since entered the Swedish Sverigetopplistan, debuting at number 47, before rising to number 7 in its third week, the week of Eurovision - eventually reaching the top spot. After the song gaining the Top Spot on Eurovision, it entered the Top Ten of many Charts across Europe, and also the No. 1 position in many countries.^[16] The song debuted on the UK charts at #10 on Downloads Alone and then dropped to #38 the next week, it also reached Number 3 on the Download Chart. "Fairytale" is the ninth non-UK Eurovision entry to reach the top ten in the UK charts since the contest began in 1956, most recently Johnny Logan reached #2 representing Ireland in 1987.^[17] It was certified Gold in Finland^[18] and Norway.^[19] The single went multi-platinum in different formats in Russia. It first went platinum as realtone full track and sold 100,000 copies.^[20] Then it was certified 2× platinum as ring-back tone with another 400,000 copies sold.^[21] Combined sales of the song are 500,000 copies without online downloads.