Arena Zagreb is a multi-purpose sports hall located in the southwestern part of Zagreb, Croatia (in the Lanište neighborhood of Novi Zagreb). The site also includes a building complex, the Arena Complex (Arena Center), making it one of the largest shopping-entertainment centers in the city.

The Croatian Government and the City Government of Zagreb held a public tender for the construction of a sports hall in order to host games in the 2009 World Men's Handball Championship, and later for numerous other sporting, cultural, and business events.

They selected the consortium composed of property developers TriGránit (from Hungary) and Ingra (from Croatia). The TriGránit/Ingra offer was initially approved on April 25, 2007, but the signing of the final contract was delayed because of Mayor Milan Bandić expressing discontent with the conditions. The Consortium engaged studio UPI-2M from Zagreb, specially for this project to create and produce a unique design for Arena Zagreb. The construction of the sports hall finally started on July 20, 2007, and was completed as planned on December 15, 2008.

Zagreb (Croatian pronunciation: [zǎːɡrɛb]) is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is 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. In the last official census of 2011, the population of the settlement of Zagreb was 686,568, while the total population of its administrative area was 792,875. The wider Zagreb metropolitan area includes the City of Zagreb and the separate Zagreb County with a population of 317,642, bringing the total metropolitan area population up to 1,110,517. It is the only metropolitan area in Croatia with a population of over one million.

Its favourable geographic position in the southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin, which extends to the Alpine, Dinaric, Adriatic and Pannonic regions, provides an excellent connection for traffic between Central Europe and the Adriatic Sea. The transport connections, concentration of industry, scientific and research institutions and industrial tradition underlie its leading economic position in Croatia. Zagreb is the seat of the central government, administrative bodies and almost all government ministries.

Halid Bešlić (pronounced [xǎːlid bɛ̂ʃlitɕ]; born 20 November 1953 in Knežina) is a prominent Bosnian folk and sevdah musician and singer who has been performing since 1979. Halid's singing career was one of the most successful in Ex Yugoslavia, and continues today throughout the entire Balkan region. After serving a mandatory stint in the Yugoslav National Army, Bešlić moved from Knežina to Sarajevo and began performing at local restaurants. After several years, he recorded his first album in 1981, entitled "Sijedi starac", meaning "The Grey-Haired Old Man". By 1984, he started becoming more and more well known, with popular songs such as "Budi budi uvijek srećna" and "Neću, neću dijamante" being heard all over Ex Yugoslavia.

Since then, Bešlić has recorded nearly 20 albums, and staged countless number of concerts. During the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina Bešlić staged more than 500 humanitarian concerts across Europe for the victims of his home country. Since the beginning of the Bosnian war, only Halid has not had a promotional concert in Belgrade, capital of Serbia.

Anthony (Tony) Cetinski (born May 31, 1969) is a Croatian pop singer. Today, he is one of the most popular male singers in Croatia and he is also popular in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.

Born into a family of musicians in Pula (then SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia), Cetinski began singing when he was 15 years old with various local groups. He moved from Rovinj to Zagreb in 1991 to start his career, and quickly became one of Croatia's leading pop stars. In 1994 he represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Nek' ti bude ljubav sva".

At the 10th Croatian Radio Festival in 2006, Cetinski won all three prizes in pop-rock category: HRF Grand Prix – pop-rock, Listener's award and Music Editors award. He also recorded the song "Lagala nas mala" as a duet with the late Toše Proeski. This song appears on both of Toše Proeski's 2005 albums Po tebe and the Croatian edition Pratim te. The song was also done as a remix by DeeJay Time.

In 2009 Cetinski won the Porin award for best male vocal performance with his song "Ako to se zove ljubav". Cetinski sold out two concerts in Arena Zagreb the same year with more than 30,000 people attending.