Good morning and welcome to the start of esctoday.com's live 2009 Eurovision Song Contest coverage. Shortly, Andrea Demirovic, Montenegro's representative, will be the first performer to step out onto the Moscow stage for the rehearsals and perform her entry Get out of my life.

In total, 42 countries will rehearse twice for technical rehearsals over the coming days, before nine dress rehearsals and three live Eurovision Song Contest shows.

The road to Moscow has been long, with hundreds of entries being whittled down to the final 42 songs in various national final from all around Europe. The song choices have been been made and it is now time to see how they will present their entries on the Eurovision Song Contest stage.

All participants will have one goal in mind – to succeed Dima Bilan contest victory for Russia, last year in Belgrade and be crowned the winners of the the 54th Eurovision Song Contest.

The esctoday.com team is already installed in the Olimpiysky Indoor Arena and will be covering the rehearsals, press conferences and all the fringe events for this, the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

Let the games begin!