Jelena Karleuša

Jelena Karleuša ( sr-Cyrl, Јелена Карлеуша; born 17 August 1978) is a Serbian singer and media personality. Born and raised in Belgrade, she began her music career by releasing her debut album ''Ogledalce'' (1995) at the age of 16. Karleuša has so far released twelve studio albums and has held two major solo concerts in Belgrade: All About Diva Show at the Belgrade Arena (2010) and Viva La Diva Show at Ušće Park (2013). Additionally, she also served as a judge on the singing competition '' Zvezde Granda'' between 2015 and 2021. '' Focus'' and '' W'' have described Karleuša as the "Lady Gaga of Serbia" and "Madonna of the Balkans", respectively.

Her public perception and popularity have significantly been influenced by her controversial and often scrutinized public persona and work, as well as by her outspoken sociopolitical views and frequent disputes with other public figures.

Since 2021, Karleuša, initially an opponent of Aleksandar Vučić and his governing politics, has become one of his greatest public supporters. She has since been widely condemned for her political statements, which often included elements of hate speech, misinformation and political propaganda.

Early life

Jelena Karleuša was born on 17 August 1978 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia. She is the only child to Ptuj-born journalist and radio host, (1958–2019), and Belgrade-born police captain, Dragan Karleuša ( 1947). She stated that her maternal great-grandmother was an Austrian countess who has a street in Graz named after her; the claim was denied by the City. Karleuša also has roots in Lika, Bosnia and Kosovo through her grandparents; her maternal grandfather was an ethnic Slovene. She grew-up in the Fontana neighborhood of New Belgrade, where she lived with her mother after her parents had divorced. She attended Zemun Gymnasium, but eventually graduated from the New Belgrade High School of Tourism. According to Karleuša, she also attended music school and played the flute as a child.

Career

1995–2003: Career beginnings and initial success

At the age of sixteen, Karleuša made her recording debut with the album ''Ogledalce'', released on 24 April 1995 under Diskos. In 2019, she revealed that Dragana Mirković helped her to finance its recording. Her sophomore album, ''Ženite se, momci'', was released the following year under PGP-RTS. It was followed by ''Veštice, vile'' (1997) and ''Jelena'' (1998), released through Zabava Miliona (ZaM). On these records Karleuša began working with lyricist Marina Tucaković, who wrote some of her best-known songs. On 23 December 1999, she released her only album for Grand Production, entitled ''Gili, gili''.

Her sixth studio album, ''Za svoje godine'', was released in January 2001 through Best Records. Subsequently, on 20 December the following year, '' Samo za tvoje oči'' was released under BK Sound. The album was produced by Phoebus in collaboration with Greek label Heaven Music. Karleuša also signed a four-year contract with Heaven Music and was supposed to release an extended play in English, which eventually failed to be realized.

2004–2013: ''Magija'', ''JK Revolution'', ''Diva'' and major concerts

In February 2004, Karleuša competed in the Serbian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, called Beovizija, with the song "Moli me". She finished in 11th place and thus failed to qualify to the final. Following her performance on Beovizija, Karleuša allegedly got banned from Radio Television of Serbia by its director, Aleksandar Tijanić. According to Karleuša, the reason behind this decision was due to the fact that her appearance and music were deemed "inappropriate" by Tijanić. She would not feature on the channel until March 2017, when she was a guest on a talk show about fashion. On 22 February 2005, Karleuša released her first album under City Records, titled '' Magija''. Her following album, '' JK Revolution'', was released on 7 February 2008. It sold in 280,000 units.

In March 2009, she was a guest on the third season of ''Big Brother VIP''. On 15 July, Karleuša released her greatest hits compilation, titled ''The Diamond Collection''. Later that year in December, she released the single "Insomnia", which covered a song from the Bollywood movie '' Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi''. "Insomnia" became one of the first Serbian music videos to go viral on YouTube. Karleuša held her first major solo concert, All About Diva Show, in the Belgrade Arena on 15 May 2010, which attracted 10,000 people. The '' All About Diva'' live album and DVD were released in November 2010. During the same year, Karleuša also landed a column in the daily newspaper '' Kurir'', which saw widespread attention for her progressive views, such as those on the LGBT community, but also for her outspoken comments on public figures like Ceca and Dragan Marković.

Her tenth studio album, '' Diva'', was released on 11 June 2012, after it had been postponed several times. It was preceded by three singles: "Insomnia" (2009), "Muškarac koji mrzi žene" (2011) and "Nova religija (Plava Šeherezada)" (2011). ''Diva'' was sold in 100,000 copies. The album was promoted with her second major solo concert, Viva La Diva Show, on 15 June 2013 in Ušće, Belgrade. It began after over an hour of delay due to technical issues regarding video and audio production, which continued throughout the concert. Nevertheless, she managed to perform all of the songs. According to her management, there were 40,000 people at the concert. Afterwards, Karleuša faced backlash from the media, who described her concert as a failure by comparing it to Ceca's concert in Ušće, which was held later that month. Additionally, she cut her ties with RTV Pink and City Records following a disagreement with its owner and CEO, Željko Mitrović.

2014–2022: ''Zvezde Granda'' and extended releasing hiatus

In September 2015, Karleuša joined the judging panel of the singing competition show '' Zvezde Granda''. During 2015, she saw international attention after she had accused Kim Kardashian, and then Beyoncé, of copying her fashion style and thus was featured on '' The Wendy Williams Show'', among many other international media outlets. The following year, Jelena's style was praised by Kardashian in her ''Woman Crush Wednesday'' column, claiming that she heard of Karleuša only after the media allegations. At the beginning of 2016, Karleuša revealed that '' Amy'' (2015), which won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 88th Academy Awards, falsely used unlicensed scenes from her Viva La Diva concert as ones of Amy Winehouse's last, Belgrade performance. Karleuša initially planned to settle a lawsuit for copyright infringement against the creators, but eventually gave up due to her "respect of the late singer". In March 2016, she made a guest performance at the Vodafone Park in Istanbul after her husband's team, Beşiktaş J.K. had won the national championship. On 28 June 2017, Karleuša presented her first releases since 2013; duets with Aca Lukas and Azis, respectively titled "Bankina" and "Ostavljam te", which were performed in the live finale of ''Zvezde Granda''.

On 29 January 2019, Karleuša performed "LaJK" featuring rapper Gazda Paja at the 2019 Music Awards Ceremony. On 24 May the following year, she held a live stream concert via music service YouBox, which attracted over 200,000 viewers. Karleuša was joined on stage by the girl-group Hurricane, who were supposed to represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest that year, and singer Milica Pavlović. In September 2021, she announced her decision to quit ''Zvezde Granda'' after five consecutive seasons. For the New Year's Eve, Karleuša performed alongside Marija Šerifović and Sara Jo in front of the House of the National Assembly to the estimated crowd of 50,000 people. In October 2022, she made her runway debut at the Steve Madden fashion show in Belgrade, organized by Fashion Company.

2023–present: ''Alpha'' and ''Omega''

At the beginning of August 2023, composer and husband of late Marina Tucaković, Aleksandar Radulović Futa forced the closure of Karleuša's YouTube channel for alleged copyright infringement of his late wife's work. Subsequently, on 13 and 20 August, Karleuša released back-to-back her long-awaited studio albums, entitled ''Alpha'' and ''Omega'', under JK Entrainment and in distribution deal with Virgin Music Group and Telekom Srbija. On 18 September, the albums were promoted with a free entrance concert at the Belgrade Waterfront. The live show, which was broadcast on several regional TV channels, featured performances from the artists whom Karleuša collaborated with on ''Alpha'' and ''Omega'' – Milica Pavlović, Devito, Sajsi MC and Mimi Mercedez.

On 1 March 2024, Karleuša walked the Vetements runway show during the Paris Fashion Week. On 19 October 2024, Karleuša kicked off her Alpha and Omega Tour in the Jane Sandanski Arena in Skopje, North Macedonia. On 25 November, Karleuša held a promo event at Galerija Belgrade for the launch of her fragrance and body mists, named JA after an ''Omega'' album track. Upon announcement of Karleuša's show in Kragujevac on 31 December 2024, due to her pro-government stance, citizens of Kragujevac started a petition against it that accumulated over 8,000 signatures by 17 December.

On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, Karleuša performed in Kragujevac and Bor, respectively. Due to threats of riots by anti-government protesters, her Kragujevac show was protected by a large number of police forces. She claimed that the show had been attended by 70,000 people and chastised Radio Television of Serbia for not reporting about it. Karleuša's claims were supported by the pro-government tabloid ''Informer'', but were soon debunked after photos from the show were shared online and it became apparent that the attendance was low. The Bor show was attended by an even lower number of people, estimated at around 1,000. On 7 January 2025, Christmas Day according to the Julian calendar followed by the Serbian Orthodox Church, Prva Srpska Televizija aired a television special ''Gala veče s Jelenom Karleušom'' featuring Karleuša performing in front of the Museum of Yugoslavia, accompanied by a symphony orchestra. The songs performed included a cover of " Vidovdan". Despite Karleuša dubbing it a celebration of 30th anniversary of her career, according to Nielsen Media Research, the special was seen by a lackluster 6.13% of viewers. In honor of the 20th anniversary of Damir Handanović's career, Karleuša agreed to participate in his project ''Novi zvuk'' for which he rearranged a number of hits from his repertoire; Karleuša herself covered "Jedno đubre obično", originally performed by Katarina Grujić in 2013. The cover was released on 8 May 2025.

Personal life

Between 1999 and 2000, Karleuša dated a businessman Zoran "Ćanda" Davidović. Ćanda was assassinated on 23 March 2000 in an ambush in Novi Sad while on his way back home from a funeral; the culprits were never identified. Karleuša was the one who identified Ćanda's body. She later dedicated her ''Za svoje godine'' album track "Balada za Zorana" to Ćanda.

On 23 September 2004, Karleuša married Bojan Karić, who is known as the nephew of businessman Bogoljub Karić. They separated four months later and divorced in March the following year.

On 28 June 2008, she married footballer Duško Tošić. The couple has two daughters. In January 2022, Tošić received a 30-day restriction order under suspicion of domestic abuse following Karleuša's report on 7 January. According to the media, Karleuša had already reported her husband for physical assault in March 2020. In both cases she decided not to press charges against him. In September 2024, both Karleuša and Tošić confirmed in separate statements that they were filing for a divorce after years of separation.

In December 2020, Karleuša said that she also holds Slovenian passport because her mother was born in Slovenia. Karleuša identifies as an atheist, although she was baptized in an Orthodox church before her wedding to Karić.

Activism and philanthropy

Because of her advocation for the LGBT rights in Serbia, Karleuša was declared the Serbian female gay icon of 2010 by the Gay Lesbian Info Centre. In September 2017, she opened the annual Belgrade Pride as the Pride's "godmother". As a practicing vegetarian, Karleuša has also been vocal on the topic of animal rights. In July 2018, she collaborated with PETA on their anti-fur campaign.

In addition, Karleuša has supported various other causes during her career. Following the 2014 Southeast Europe floods, she supplied Serbian shelters with basic necessities for three consecutive days. Same year, Karleuša and Tošić were amongst the few regional celebrities who financially contributed to ALS research after participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge. In 2015, she performed at Donna Ares' charity concert for victims of cancer in the Zetra Olympic Hall, Sarajevo. In December 2018, Karleuša donated 100,000 RSD to VK Partizan for pool-heating during winter seasons.

Controversies

Karleuša has developed a reputation for disputes with several local public figures on social media, particularly Instagram and Twitter, including: Svetlana Ceca Ražnatović, Veljko and Anastasija Ražnatović, Aca Lukas, Severina, Viki Miljković, Baka Prase, Vanja Knežević, Marija Šerifović, Rada Manojlović, Aleksandra Prijović, Maya Berović, Vojislav Šešelj, Dijana Janković, Dragan Marković, Ivana Stamenković, Ognjen Vranješ, Kristijan Golubović, Breskvica, Saša Vidić, Ivan Ivanović, Voyage, Sloboda Mićalović, Edita Aradinović, Ana Nikolić, Saša Popović, Seka Aleksić, Nada Obrić, Milan Radulović Laća, Dara Bubamara, Nucci, Vanja Knežević, Neda Ukraden, Emina Jahović, Milica Pavlović, and several international public figures like Kim Kardashian, Nikita Dragun, Dua Lipa, and Madonna.

Severina

After Croatian singer Severina got denied entry in Serbia in August 2024, due to her comments on Srebrenica genocide, Karleuša took to Instagram to publicly insult her and accusing her of drug dealing, fascism and hate. Severina posted back, saying that Karleuša finished Aleksandar Vučić’s school for manipulation with facts �� After months of social media arguments between two, Karleuša made public appearance on national television spreading hate speech, nationalism, ageism, sexism torwards Severina. Karleuša kept being critical of Severina, after Severina spoke out against the Government of Serbia and against Vučić himself multiple times. More specifically, Karleuša criticized Vučković in light of the United Nations General Assembly's 23 May 2024 adoption of Resolution 78/282, which deals with the Srebrenica massacre which Vučković condemned. Although she herself had condemned the massacre in 2014 and 2016, Karleuša called out Vučković for dubbing it a genocide instead of simply a "crime". Afterwards, Karleuša would continue to accuse Vučković on numerous occasions of endorsing the Ustasha genocide of Serbs and the Operation Storm exodus.

Incident with contestant Vanja Knežević

In 2021, Vanja Knežević came into the public spotlight when she was disqualified from the Zvezde Granda competition, after she shared insulting comments on Instagram about the then member of the jury, Karleuša. Couple of months prior to that, Vanja was performing on the competition, upon which two got into argument regarding Knežević’s singing and physical appearance, which Karleuša called "18 year old aunt". Karleuša received backlash due to her comments made for 18 year old contestant. After that, Karleuša announced on her Instagram post that she will be suing Knežević for threat, saying: "Because of the call to violence, as well as because of the statements that caused the brutal media lynching of me and my minor children, I decided to file a criminal complaint against the Grand candidate, Vanja Knežević."

Instagram petition

On 2 February 2025, the civic association Eko Straža made a petition to Meta Platforms, the owner of Instagram, for shutting down Karleuša's Instagram account. As the reason for that, they accused Karleuša's Instagram posts and activities of promoting hate speech, harassment and misinformation. Requiring 350,000 signatures, they received more than 270,500 within a day. The account was banned on 10 February 2025. This marked the second time Karleuša's Instagram was shut down or was under petition to shut down. In May 2024, Karleuša's Instagram account was shut down by 100,000 reports (see § Political views).

Karleuša created a new Instagram account on 15 May 2025, only days after announcing her intent to travel to the United States and meet Meta representatives in person with the ultimate goal of restoring her previous account. However, on 5 June 2025, Karleuša's new account was shut down as well, this time for alleged purchasing two million fake followers, a number identical to that on her previous account, within a short period of time.

Political views

Throughout the years, Karleuša has supported various political options and individuals. In a 1998 ''Svet'' interview, she showed sympathies for Slobodan Milošević, stating that she found him the "most likeable". On the other hand, following the 2000 downfall of Milošević, Karleuša has openly praised Zoran Đinđić for his progressive politics, but admitted that she recognized Đinđić's progressivism only after his 2003 assassination and that she had believed his opponents' propaganda prior to it. She also supported Čedomir Jovanović and was a guest on a panel organized by the Liberal Democratic Party in October 2010.

In the initial years of the governance of Aleksandar Vučić, Karleuša openly opposed his politics and supported the protests against him. However, she eventually ended up endorsing Vučić for the 2022 Serbian general election. Moreover, in November 2021, Karleuša supported the mining operation in the Jadar region proposed by Rio Tinto and the Serbian Government, in spite of the national protests against it due to its potentially hazardous effects on the environment. She also criticized the 2023 Serbian protests held as a result of the Belgrade school shooting and joined the counter rally organized by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on 27 May 2023. Also in regards to the 2023 protests, Karleuša faced scrutiny after she had criticized actors for taking part in the anti-government protests whilst starring in television series and movies financed by the publicly owned Telekom Srbija. Opposition member of the National Assembly, Đorđe Stanković, alleged that Karleuša would receive €1.5 million from Telekom for her forthcoming album and a talk show. In December 2023, Karleuša revealed that her support for Vučić came after he was "the only one" who helped her with her mother's cancer treatment. According to Jelena Manojlović of Nova.rs, Karleuša was paid around €300,000 in total from the city budgets of Požarevac, Šabac, Ruma, Sombor, Subotica, Kikinda and Kraljevo for her public concerts in those cities, which were held from July to September 2024 and which Manojlović claimed were organized due to Karleuša's support for the ruling SNS. Irena Dedakin, also of Nova.rs, called Karleuša's "concert tour of city squares in Serbia" "an award for loyalty to the SNS regime". In December 2024, she announced her plans to run for President of Serbia following the end of Vučić's term, "despite believing that he should rule forever". During the same month, she criticized the 2024–2025 Serbian anti-corruption protests, initiated by university students following the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse, claiming that she "advocates that university education in Serbia should no longer be free" and calling for the students' arrests and the professors' incarceration.

After the cancelation of her show in Podgorica due to her statement about Montenegrin ethnic identity ("Every Montenegrin's grandfather was a Serb"), Karleuša's Instagram account was mass reported and subsequently temporarily banned in May 2024. In November 2024, the Romanian Embassy in Belgrade condemned Karleuša for her statements about the Serbian politician Marinika Tepić, an ethnic Romanian. Karleuša's statements, in which she had been repeatedly pointing out Tepić's Romanian ethnicity and had implied that ethnic Serbs should be held to different standards than ethnic minorities, were also condemned by the Serbian Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Janković and the European Movement Serbia, among others. The statements were described as " chauvinist" by N1 and Nova.rs, and as hate speech by N1 and '' Vijesti''.

In the past, Karleuša has also been critical of Serbian politicians Dragan "Palma" Marković and Vojislav Šešelj, as well as of Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik and the Government of Croatia.

Legal issues

In 2010, Serbian singer Svetlana "Ceca" Ražnatović began a legal action against Karleuša for defamation after Karleuša had addressed Ceca in an open letter via Facebook, accusing her of maintaining close ties with the Zemun Clan through connections from her late husband, Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović, and of being involved in the 2000 assassination of Karleuša's then-boyfriend, Zoran "Ćanda" Davidović, who was alleged also to be connected to organized crime. Furthermore, she addressed the rumors of Ceca purposely creating bad publicity for Karleuša through her acquaintances in the media and show business. In February 2017, Ceca claimed victory over Karleuša, who was fined with €650 and ordered to cover Ceca's €900 court expenses.

On 10 April 2018, Karleuša was interrogated under suspicion of spreading panic amidst the national measles epidemic, after she had publicly advocated for the freedom of choice when it comes to MMR vaccination. She explained that she based her views on personal experience with one of her daughters who, according to her, had a bad reaction following the vaccination. While publicly receiving her COVID-19 vaccine in May 2021, Karleuša accentuated that she is not " anti-vax" and encouraged Serbian people to also get vaccinated.

At the beginning of 2019, Serbian media started reporting on Karleuša having an affair with Bosnian footballer Ognjen Vranješ, which she initially firmly denied. The scandal subsequently erupted when nude photos of her started circulating the web and were eventually placed on the cover of every daily tabloid in Serbia. Furthermore, Karleuša's Twitter account got suspended after she had posted private nude photos of Vranješ, which she claimed she had received from a female singer who had been involved with him. (Karleuša created a new Twitter account in August 2023.) Due to her private life, between January and February 2019, Karleuša made 110 front-page headlines of the daily newspapers, where she was presented in mostly negative light. Serbian Press Council publicly condemned tabloids for violating Serbian Codex of journalism, citing this incident as a prime example of the downfall of Serbian media scene in recent years. The State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information, Aleksandar Gajović, declared on 16 January that the Ministry would submit infringement reports against Serbian tabloids '' Kurir'', ''Informer'', '' Alo!'' and ''Srpski telegraf'' for their sexually explicit front pages. Brankica Janković, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, stated that tabloids continued breaking the Codex of journalism by promoting "belittling and insulting" content as well as gender stereotypes in spite of reprimands from the Ministry. Karleuša herself stated that she had initiated over 140 charges against Vranješ and mentioned newspapers for defamation and that all the proceeds from the lawsuits would go to charity. By the end of 2023, despite her initial denial of the adultery allegations, Karleuša looked back on the incident by describing it as her "online mistake".

In June 2019, Karleuša verbally and physically assaulted the ''Kurir'' paparazzo Vladimir Šporčić who was taking photos of her while she was visiting her mother's grave at the Bežanija New Cemetery. ''Kurir'' released the video of the incident a day later. Šporčić subsequently filed a criminal complaint against Karleuša. The Third Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade submited an indictment to the court in March 2021; Karleuša was charged with the crime of "abuse and torture". Karleuša sampled the voice of a news anchor reading a report about the Prosecutor's Office indictment submission in her 2023 "KarlyB*tch" music video, as well as the ''Alpha'' album track "KarlyB*tch 2".

Discography

;Studio albums
*''Ogledalce'' (1995)
*''Ženite se momci'' (1996)
*''Veštice, vile'' (1997)
*''Jelena'' (1998)
*''Gili, gili'' (1999)
*''Za svoje godine'' (2001)
*'' Samo za tvoje oči'' (2002)
*'' Magija'' (2005)
*'' JK Revolution'' (2008)
*'' Diva'' (2012)
*''Alpha'' (2023)
*''Omega'' (2023)

Awards and nominations

# Karleuša asked her fans purposely not to vote for her, because in her opinion she can't be labelled as a " folk" singer.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Karleusa, Jelena
1978 births
Living people
20th-century Serbian women singers
21st-century Serbian women singers
Singers from Belgrade
Serbian turbo-folk singers
Serbian folk-pop singers
Serbian pop singers
Serbian television personalities
Serbian LGBTQ rights activists
Serbian nationalists
Serbian atheists
Serbian people of Slovenian descent