Horizon Song Contest 01

Horizon Song Contest 01, often referred to as HZSC 01 , was the 1st edition of the Horizon Song Contest. The contest was hosted in Zagreb, Croatia, the birth country of the excecutive producer, Ado Skbo. The show was hosted by New Zealandian-Croatian singer, Lorde.

The winner was  with the song  Dig Deep  performed by Lxandra. This was Finland's first win. The runner-up,  achieved its best result ever as well as the first top 3 result and first automatic qualification whilst the third place . , which placed fourth, being the best result country got since their third place in the 2nd edition. Fifth place  gained its first automatic qualification spot. 's Sigrid took the last place of the Big 6 with her song  Strangers . The host, Croatia, ended 18th in the final while came last with 18 points., marking it the least points anyone got in the final in both the old and the new voting system.

Participating countries
53 countries participated in the edition, making it one of the editions with the most amount of participants, after the 6th and 7th edition. The 53 countries were split into two Semi finals with 24 and 23 countries in each Semi final, and the Big 6 countries it puts together 26 countries in the Grand Final.

Theme art & theme
The theme art was designed by excecutive producer Ado Skbo and the theme song (slogan) was Show the real you, the slogan and theme were chosen on 18th June, 2018.

Location
Arena Centar Zagreb is a concert/olympics arena in the center of Zagreb. It has a 16,500 people capacity, and it was used for many concerts based in Zagreb: Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, it was also used for the 2011 Croatian ice skating tournament.

Bidding phase
HRT (Hrvatska radiotelevizija) announced the conditions under which cities and venues had announced their interest in hosting the 1st edition of the contest:
 * The host city must be able to provide a certain number of hotels and hotel rooms to be found in the vicinity of the stadium.
 * The arena must able to offer lodges adjacent to the stadium.
 * A press centre must be available at the stadium that will have a specific size.
 * HRT must have access to the host venue at least 4–6 weeks before the broadcasts, in order to build the stage, rigging lights and all the technology.
 * The host city must be close to a major airport.

The following cities are interested in hosting the 1st edition.

Host city
Zagreb] is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. It is located in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m (400 ft) above sea level. The estimated population of the city in 2018 is 809,932. The population of Zagreb urban agglomeration is slightly above 1.1 million inhabitants and it makes approximately a quarter of a total population of Croatia.

Zagreb has a special status in the Croatia's administrative division and is a consolidated city-county (but separated from Zagreb County),[ and is administratively subdivided into 17 city districts.[ Most of them are at a low elevation along the river Sava valley, whereas northern and northeastern city districts, such as Podsljeme and Sesvete districts are situated in the foothills of the Medvednicamountain,making the city's geographical image rather diverse. The city extends over 30 kilometres (19 miles) east-west and around 20 kilometres (12 miles) north-south.

Semi-final allocation draw
The allocation draw took part on 22/06, 2018.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The allocation draw of the Semi finals took part on 22nd of June, 2018.

The participating countries (excluding the big 6) will be placed into 6 pots, they were calculated and are as follows: 23 countries were allocated into the first Semi final, and 24 into the second semi final. , and  voted in the first Semi final, whilist,  and  voted in the second Semi final.