Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony LIVE: Snoop Dogg and Usher arrive in Italy forward of showstopping efficiency from Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli

A very Eurovision-like feel to this presentation, with commentary on BBC explaining what’s going on.

The opening performance sees angels in what appears to be a museum. There are plenty of statues too. It’s a story of love with Cupid present, we are told.

Oh – evening, vice president.

Here we go then!

The BBC have just interviewed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and he said he’d like to take on skiing because he has fast cards. Fair enough.

Anyway, here we go then.

Loud roars as the ceremony is introduced. We start off with a VT, but I can see people dressed up waiting to come on…

A few more celebrities for you before we get underway…

Usher is here, and he’s got the memo of wrapping up warm.

Also a snap of Olivia Maher, and Wicked star Jeff Goldblum!

There are a lot of empty seats inside the stadium right now, but there are plenty of fans outside.

We’re expecting around 75,000 in attendance to watch the opening bow.

Imagine tearing your ACL before being air-lifted to hospital and, a week later, you’re competing in the Olympics.

Lindsey Vonn doesn’t have to imagine. A matter of days ago, the 41-year-old crashed in the FIS World Cup downhill event at Crans-Montana in Switzerland.

It threatened to ruin her return after her second retirement in 2019, but her coach is tipping her to not just compete – but win gold!

Reach more on this staggering story from Riath Al-Samarrai by clicking here or below.

Onto the sport, then.

The last Games was held in Beijing, China, four years ago. Norway topped the medal charts with 16 golds – makes sense – and Team GB came 19th, picking up one gold and one silver.

Three to seven medals were the target – oops. But full credit to the women’s curling team, who picked up gold for a fourth consecutive Games, and the men’s curling team, who won silver.

Let’s hope for better this time around!

Vice president JD Vance is set to lead the US’s delegation this evening, but the International Olympic Committee has been forced to issue an urgent plea to fans, asking them not to boo him amid political unrest that has spilled into Italy.

Just days before the curtain-raiser, protestors swept through the streets of Milan, demonstrating the depoyment of the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents

The protest was as much against the news that agents from a division of ICE would participate in security for the U.S. delegation as against what many of those present said they saw as creeping fascism in the United States.

If you want to read more on that, please click here or below!

Great Britain are due to come out 35th during the ceremony, with 53 athletes taking part, including Dave Ryding and Andrew Musgrave, who are both set to take part in their fifth Olympic Games.

Brad Hall and Lilah Fear have been selected as Team GB’s flagbearers for the Opening Ceremony.

Snoop Dogg is in the house! He had a go at some of the sports and has been cheering on USA.

Tennis legend Boris Becker is here, too.

A number of performances will also be on offer from artists from around the world – including Mariah Carey (close enough to Christmas, right).

Organisers have said the US superstar has made the ‘courageous’ decision to sing a ‘very well-known song’ in its original Italian. Fair enough.

Andrea Bocelli will perhaps be the main attraction for the Italian crowd, but actress Sabrina Impacciatore, Golden Globe winner Laura Pausini and actor Pierfrancesco Favino will also be in attendance.

Plenty more, too. 1,300 performers will be present in total, with 1,200 of them volunteers from 27 different countries.

As usual, there has been a red carpet ahead of tonight’s ceremony, and the stars – past and present – have been out in full force.

In that first picture is Monique Coleman, American actress and dancer. In the second is Carolina Kostner and the third sees Robin Cousins – formerly a British figure skater and also a judge on ITV’s Dancing on Ice, you may remember.

Not long now until the ceremony gets underway!

The symbolic Parade of Nations will take place across four locations in northern Italy, with the main event in the San Siro.

Each country is allowed to select two flag bearers, with 92 delegations taking part in total. The athletes will be presented in the ceremony.

The parade will start with Greece, and end with Italy, going through alphabetically using the Italian alphabet. Italy are allowed four flag bearers.

There will also be two cauldrons lit for the first time in Olympic history – one in Milan, and one in Cortina d’Ampezzo.