Good morning and welcome to the start of esctoday.com's live 2008 Eurovision Song Contest coverage. In under 30 minutes, Stefan Filipovic, Montenegro's representative, will step out onto the Belgrade stage for the first of 43 countries' rehearsals

In total, 43 countries will rehearse twice for technical rehearsals over the coming days, before nine dress rehearsals and for the first time ever, three live Eurovision Song Contest shows.

The road to Belgrade has been long with plenty of changes and topics for fans to discuss. The time for all that is now over, and from today, rehearsals for the largest ever edition of the largest music competition in the world begins.

esctoday.com is already installed in the Sava Centre and will be covering all the rehearsals, press conferences and all the fringe events for this, the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

Let the good times begin!