EuroVisionary.com - Everything you need to know about the Eurovision Song Contest - We welcome the 2009 Contest in Moscow

The participants have arrived to Cyprus and just like at the Eurovision Song Contest it means that it is time for final rehearsals to start. The official welcome party kicks off tonight and with the theme Fun in the sun everyone should have a great time on the Island where winter seems far away.

Despite having been rehearsing for a week and held the obligatorily press conferences afterwards the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest was officially opened on Sunday evening.

Today was the last realistic opportunity for delegations to experiment with new ideas in their acts before the start of the full show rehearsals tomorrow.

Exactly a week to go before the Eurovision final and the rehearsals and press conferences continue apace. This morning, Tereza Kerndlova was the first to step on to the stage. She and her backing singers and dancers looked splendid in their predominantly silver outfits.

While waiting for the Croatian press conference to start some of the volunteers in the press center entertained the waiting press with their very own versions of Molitva and Oro.

The official site, eurovision.tv, is now inviting all fans, participants and sites like EuroVisionary to blog about the upcoming event. We have decided to take part in this and in this week you can read about our preparations for Belgrade.

Serbia prepares for two major events in the next two weeks, a pre-term parliamentary election on May 11th and, of course, the Eurovision Song Contest, for which rehearsals start the same day. Carl Bildt and Svante Stockselius discussed safety in relation to Belgrade last night on Swedish TV.

The full rehearsal schedule is now made public and different to last year is the fact that the long evenings have been dropped. On some days the last rehearsal ends between 4 and 5 in the afternoon while others are a bit longer, but no one is on stage to rehearse after 19.20.

It has become quite a tradition that the previous winner who brought the contest to the country is opening the final. That will however not be possible this year, as Marija Serifovic will be performing at a charity event in Subotica.