Jelena Karleuša

Jelena Karleuša (born 17 August 1978), also known under her initials JK, is a Serbian singer, songwriter, columnist, activist and media personality. Born and raised in Belgrade, she came to prominence upon the release of her debut album Ogledalce (1995). Karleuša has collectively released twelve studio albums and has held two major solo concerts: All About Diva Show in the Belgrade Arena (2010) and Viva La Diva Show in Ušće, Belgrade (2013). She also served as a television judge on Zvezde Granda between 2015 and 2021.
Having received substantial media coverage due to her provocative, often polarizing and controversial public persona, Karleuša was described as the "Madonna of the Balkans" and "Lady Gaga of Serbia" by Focus and W magazine, respectively. She has also amassed significant social media following, being the second most-followed person from Serbia on Instagram with over 2.4 million followers.
Early life
Jelena Karleuša was born on 17 August 1978 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia. She is the only child to Slovenian-born journalist and radio host, Divna (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, which was, however, denied by the Austrian media and the City of Graz.
Karleuša 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. She has cited Lepa Brena as one of her main musical influences growing up.
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 ZaM. On these records Karleuša began working with lyricist Marina Tucaković, who wrote some of her greatest hits. On 23 December 1999, she released her only album for Grand Production, Gili, gili, which was sold in 250,000 copies.
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 realize.
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 did not appear on the Serbian national broadcaster 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 was sold in 280,000 units.<ref>JK Revolution circulation:
Cassette tape:
CD first series:
CD second series:
CD third series: {{cite web |url=https://plus.cobiss.net/cobiss/sr/sr/bib/146168588#full |title=JK Revolution [Zvučni snimak] (Zvučni CD-I) |work=Virtuelna biblioteka Srbije |access-date=22 May 2023 |language=sr}}</ref>
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 Svetlana "Ceca" Ražnatović and Dragan "Palma" 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 400,000 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 and drew comparisons to Ceca's concert in Ušće, which was held later that month. Additionally, she had an argument with the owner of RTV Pink, Željko Mitrović, which terminated her recording contract with City Records and relationship with television Pink.
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 the 2015 Academy Award-winning documentary about Amy Winehouse falsely used unlicensed scenes from her 2013 concert as ones of Winehouse's last Belgrade performance. Karleuša initially planned to settle a lawsuit against the creators for copyright infringement, 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 "O.S.T.A.V.L.J.A.M.T.E.", 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
Karleuša's long-awaited studio albums, entitled Alpha and Omega, were released back-to-back on 13 and 20 August 2023, respectively, 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 featured performances from the artists whom Karleuša collaborated with on Alpha and Omega – Milica Pavlović, Devito, Sajsi MC and Mimi Mercedez. The concert was broadcast on TV Prva in Serbia and Montenegro, Kanal 5 in North Macedonia and ATV in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Personal life
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: Atina (2008) and Nika (2009), both born on 7 September by Caesarean section. In January 2022, Tošić received a 30 day restriction order under suspicion of domestic abuse following Karleuša's report on the Christmas Day according to Julian calendar. 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. On 5 July 2022, Karleuša confirmed via her Instagram profile that Tošić and her would be separating after 14 years of marriage. She further stated that they had mutually agreed that she receives the custody over their daughters.
In December 2020, Karleuša said that she also holds Slovenian passport because her mother was born in Ljubljana.
Karleuša identifies as an atheist. She has also been vegetarian since 2016, and stated that she would like to go fully vegan.
Activism
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". 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 her husband 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.
Political views
Throughout the years, Karleuša has supported various political options and individuals. In a 1998 interview, she showed sympathies for Slobodan Milošević, stating that she found him the "most sympathetic". On the other hand, following the downfall of Milošević, Karleuša has openly praised Zoran Đinđić for his progressive politics. 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 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 eleventh studio album and her own talk show.
Additionally, 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 she had addressed Ražnatović in an open letter via Facebook, accusing her of maintaining close ties with the Zemun Clan through connections from her late husband, Željko Ražnatović, and of being involved in the 1999 assassination of Karleuša's then-boyfriend, Zoran Davidović, who was also connected with 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 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 accusing Karleuša of having an affair with Bosnian footballer Ognjen Vranješ, which she 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. On 14 January, Karleuša took to Twitter, claiming that the majority of the photos had been edited, while the rest had been stolen from her cell phone. Her Twitter account also got suspended after she had posted private nude photos of Vranješ, which according to her, she received from a female singer who was involved with him. Between January and February 2019, Karleuša made 110 front page headlines of the daily newspapers, where she was featured in mostly negative content, which was in reference to her private life. 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. The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković, 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.
Discography 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
1978 births
Living people
21st-century Serbian women singers
Singers from Belgrade
Serbian turbo-folk singers
Serbian folk-pop singers
Serbian pop singers
Serbian television personalities
Serbian LGBT rights activists
Serbian atheists
Wives and girlfriends of association football players
Serbian people of Slovenian descent
Beovizija contestants