Jelena Karleuša

At sixteen years of age, Karleuša made her recording debut with a financial help from singer Dragana Mirković.[11] Her first album Ogledalce was released on 24 April 1995 by Diskos in 100,000 copies. The same year, she made her first performance at the annual Poselo 202 manifestation, which was organized by her mother, Divna Karleuša.[12] Her sophomore album Ženite se momci was released the following year under PGP-RTS.

Her next two albums: Veštice, vile (1997) and Jelena (1998), were released through ZaM. These records spawned popular songs like "Ko ovu dramu režira", "Jelena" and "Žene vole dijamante", written by Marina Tucaković, who was behind some of Karleuša's greatest hits. The latter song covered "Şımarık" by the Turkish singer Tarkan. In 1999, she released her only album for Grand Production, under the title Gili, gili, which was sold in 250,000 copies.[13]

In January 2001, Karleuša released her sixth album Za svoje godine under Best Records. It was promoted with a music video for the song "Ludača" .

In December 2002, her studio album Samo za tvoje oči was released under BK Sound in Serbia and Montenegro.[14] The album was created in collaboration with Greek label Heaven Music. The R&B-influenced songs were written by Phoebus and Marina Tucaković, while the background vocals were sang by Toše Proeski.[15] She was also supposed to release an extended play in English with Heaven Music for international market, which was praised by Serbian magazine NIN, describing her as the "best Serbian export product".[14] Eventually, Karleuša terminated the four-year contract with the Greek label. In April the following year, Karleuša performed a medley from Samo za tvoje oči at the 2003 Beovizija music festival, where she received the award for the "Foreign break-through".

In February 2004, Karleuša competed in the national selection competition for the Eurovision Song Contest, called 2004 Beovizija, with the song "Moli me", where she placed 11th based on the jury's vote. Despite receiving bad critiques for her vocals, Karleuša was complimented for her stage performance.[16] Following her appearance on Beovizija, Karleuša got banned from Radio Television of Serbia by its director, Aleksandar Tijanić. The reason for this decision, according to her, was due to the fact that her appearance and music were deemed "inappropriate" by Tijanić.[17] In September 2016, it was reported that Karleuša would appear on RTS for the first time in over a decade as a guest on a talk show about fashion, called Lice i potpetice, which aired in March 2017.[18][17] Her subsequent album Magija was released in February 2005 under City Records. It was promoted with music videos for the songs "Slatka mala" and "Upravo ostavljena", which generated controversy with conservative and religious groups for respectively featuring scenes with drag queens and Karleuša crucified.[19]

In February 2008, Karleuša released JK Revolution, which was sold in 280,000 copies.[20] However, despite its commercial success, the album's promotion was also followed with several controversies. Karleuša faced public scrutiny for the infamous studio session of the lead single "Tihi ubica", which had leaked to the public and provoked discussion about her vocal abilities.[19] Subsequently, the music video for the song, which was filmed in the historical Karlovci Gymnasium, started a petition from its professors, students and their parents to ban the video in order to protect their school's "reputation".[21] Serbian magazine Vreme, however, commented on the situation as an example of "false morality", stating that the music video did not contain anything worthy of censorship.[21]

In March 2009, she entered the third Serbian season of Big Brother VIP as a guest for a day. In July, Karleuša released a compilation album, titled The Diamond Collection, featuring thirty five songs. In December, she also released her single "Insomnia", which covered a Bollywood song from the movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. The electro-infused single was downloaded over a million times for free from Karleuša's official website.[22] Furthermore, the song's visual became one of the first Serbian music videos to go viral on YouTube.[22]

On 10 May 2010, Karleuša held her first major concert in the Belgrade Arena, under the name All About Diva Show.[23] The live show, which was conceptually divided into three sections, attracted around 15,000 people.[23] In November, she released the live album and the DVD from the concert, which was two years later, upon the release of her next album, certified platinum by the label. During the same year, Karleuša also landed a column in the daily newspaper Kurir, which attracted significant attention for her support for the LGBT community in Serbia after the first Belgrade Pride, but also for her outspoken comments on public figures such as Svetlana Ceca Ražnatović and Dragan Marković Palma.[19]

Her tenth album Diva was released on 11 June 2012, after being postponed several times. It was preceded by three singles: "Insomnia" (2009), "Muškarac koji mrzi žene" and "Nova religija" (2011). The album saw commercial success, reportedly becoming one of the fastest-selling albums by a Serbian artist.[24] Diva also marked a significant departure from her previous pop-folk releases, as it comprises dance-pop and electropop tracks with hip-hop and R&B influences. The album was promoted with two music videos: "Krimi rad" featuring Techa and "So" featuring Nesh, released in July and September 2012, respectively.

Karleuša announced her second Belgrade concert for 15 June 2013 in Ušće park. The concert, titled Viva La Diva Show, began after over an hour of delay due to technical issues regarding video and audio production, which continued throughout the show.[25] Nevertheless, she managed to perform all of the songs. According to her management, Viva La Diva Show attracted 40,000 people.[26] Afterwards, Karleuša faced heavy criticism from the media because of which she eventually decided to take a break from public. Additionally, later that year, she became blacklisted on Serbian television network Pink after an argument with its owner, Željko Mitrović.[27][28] In this case Karleuša also lost her recording contract with City Records, which is also owned by Mitrović. She returned to Pink in late 2018 by making several television appearances, but was subsequently banned once again after another altercation with Mitrović. This time, the argument initiated after reporters working for Pink had continuously filmed Karleuša at her mother's grave to her dismay.[17]

In 2015, Karleuša ended her hiatus by becoming a judge, and later a mentor, on the singing competition Zvezde Granda.[29] 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.[30][31] 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.[32]

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 live show. Karleuša initially planned to settle a lawsuit against the creators for copyright infringement, but eventually gave up due to respect of the late singer.[33] In March 2016, she made a guest performance at Vodafone Park in Istanbul after her husband's team, Besiktas J.K. had won the national championship.[34] The following June, Karleuša presented her first releases since 2013: "Bankina" and "Ostavljam te", two duets featuring Aca Lukas and Azis, respectively. The songs were performed on the live finale of Zvezde Granda.

In late January 2019, Karleuša performed "LaJK" (Like) featuring Serbian rapper Gazda Paja at the 2019 Music Awards Ceremony.[35]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she announced her online concert via Serbian music service YouBox, which took place on May 24.[36] The live stream performance attracted over 200,000 viewers.[37] On stage Karleuša was also joined by the girl-group Hurricane, who were supposed to represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest that year, and singer Milica Pavlović.[38] In December 2020, Karleuša revealed that she was also supposed to represent Slovenia in the Eurovision Song contest with the song "La Bomba", but eventually gave up on it.[39] The song was later re-recorded in English and Spanish featuring Brazilian drag queen and singer Pabllo Vittar, which was announced at the beginning of 2020.[40]

In September 2021, she announced her decision to quit Zvezde Granda after serving as a judge for five consecutive seasons.[41] For the New Year's Eve, Karleuša performed alongside Marija Šerifović and Sara Jo in front of the National Assembly of Serbia to the estimated crowd of up to 50,000 people.[42] In October 2022, she made her runway debut at the Steve Madden fashion show in Belgrade, organized by Fashion Company.[43]

For her support of the LGBT rights in Serbia, Kareluša was declared the Serbian gay icon in 2010 by the Gay Lesbian Info Centre.[53] Furthermore, she was also the "godmother" of the 2017 Belgrade Pride.[54][55] Karleuša has been noted for supporting various other causes during her career. Following the 2014 Southeast Europe floods, she supplied Serbian shelters with basic necessities for three consecutive days.[56] Also that year, Karleuša and her husband were amongst the few regional celebrities who financially contributed to ALS research after participating in the ice bucket challenge.[57] In 2015, she performed at Donna Ares' charity concert for victims of cancer in Zetra Olympic Hall, Sarajevo.[58] In December 2018, Karleuša donated 100,000 RSD to VK Partizan for pool-heating during winter seasons.[59] Also vocal on the topic of animal rights,[60] she collaborated with PETA on their anti-fur campaign in July 2018.[61]

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.[62] Furthermore, she addressed the rumors of Ceca purposely creating bad publicity for Karleuša through her acquaintances in the media and show business.[62] In February 2017, Svetlana Ražnatović claimed victory over Karleuša, who was fined with €650 and ordered to cover Ceca's €900 court expenses.[63]

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.[64] 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.[65] 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.[66][67]

At the beginning of 2019, Serbian media started accusing Karleuša of having an affair with Bosnian footballer Ognjen Vranješ, which she firmly denied.[68] 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.[69] On January 14, Karleuša took to Twitter, claiming that the majority of the photos had been edited, while the rest had been stolen from her cell phone.[70][71] Her Twitter account also got suspended after she had posted private nude photo's of Vranješ, which according to her, she received from a female singer who was involved with him.[72] 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.[73] 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.[74] The State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information, Aleksandar Gajović, declared on January 16 that the Ministry would submit infringement reports against Serbian tabloids Kurir, Informer, Alo! and Srpski telegraf for their sexually explicit front pages.[75] 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.[76] 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.[77]