Oslo - Norway continued Monday to bask in Alexander Rybak's Eurovision Song Contest victory over the weekend in the annual competition that draws millions of television viewers. A Norwegian TNS Gallup survey published Monday suggested some 2 million Norwegians - a record number of viewers in Norway - saw his winning performance on Saturday.
The bells in Oslo City Hall will in the coming days ring with the tune of Rybak's winning entry, Fairytale.
One Norwegian newspaper named him Alexander the III since it was the third time Norway has won the competition.
Rybak, 23, whose parents moved to Norway from Belarus when he was four, composed and performed the song during the 2009 edition of the Eurovision competition in Moscow. The Russian capital hosted the event after the 2008 win by heartthrob Dima Bilan.
On Sunday Rybak was feted at the Norwegian embassy in Moscow and late Sunday evening was welcomed by several thousand fans at Oslo's Gardermoen Airport on his return from Moscow.
The singer, who announced his arrival time on live television, said he was stunned over the turnout, saying he had expected to be met by "some 20, 30 fans."
The turnout included hundreds of teenage girls who screamed and cheered when glimpsing the fiddling singer, many waving blue, red and white Norwegian flags.
Sunday was a public holiday as Norwegians celebrated Constitution Day, marking the 1814 signing of Norway's first constitution, and the end of over 400 years of Danish rule.
However, the powers of the day did not accept full Norwegian independence and in November 1814 Norway and Sweden formed a loose union that was dissolved in 1905.
Several Norwegian cities, including Tromso in the north as well as Bergen in the west, on Monday said they were interested in hosting the 2010 Eurovision event.
