Full Name Jelena Karleuša Years active 1995–present Children Nika Tošić, Atina Tošić | Instruments vocals | |
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Born 17 August 1978 (age 38) ( 1978-08-17 ) Belgrade, Serbia Occupation Recording artistdancertelevision personalitypolitical columnisthuman rights activistsocial media starsingerfashion designer Genres Popelectropopturbofolkdance Labels DiskosDaniel EstradaZabava milionaHeaven MusicBest RecordsBK SoundGrand ProductionCity Records Spouse Duško Tošić (m. 2008), Bojan Karić (m. 2004–2004) Albums Profiles | ||
Jelena Karleuša Tošić (Serbian Cyrillic: Јелена Карлеуша Тошић; born 17 August 1978), professionally known under her maiden name Jelena Karleuša, is a Serbian pop star, former columnist and a human rights activist. She is known for her extravagant image that pushes the boundaries. Today, she is one of the most popular singers in the Balkans, selling millions of albums within the region. She rose to fame with her debut album Ogledalce (1995), and has since gained popularity in the former Yugoslavia. In 1999 she released Gili, gili which had a pop sound and changed Karleuša’s music style. Album Diva was released in 2012 becoming one of the most successful albums in Serbia. She held two big concerts: All About Diva Show (Beogradska arena, 2010 and Viva la Diva Show (Belgrade estuary, 2013).
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Karleuša holds the title of fashion icon in southeastern Europe, her stage outfits and personal style featured on her highly followed Instagram profile. In 2006, Karleuša launched her own fashion brand, named JK Wear. The collection included dresses and other accessories.
In 2010, she was guest star on the reality show Big Brother All Stars VP for two days. The same year, it was rumored Karleuša would start her political career, as she openly supported the ideas of Zoran Đinđić and Čedomir Jovanović.
In 2015, Karleuša accused Kim Kardashian of copying her fashion style, citing several outfits that were similar. Recently The Wendy Williams Show also showed Beyoncé wearing very similar looks that Karleuša had worn previously.
In September 2015, Karleuša became a member of the jury in the singing talent show program "Zvezde Granda".
Early life
Jelena Karleuša was born in Serbia's capital city Belgrade to father Dragan (born 1 January 1947 in Belgrade), a senior police officer, and mother Divna (born 25 January 1957 in Slovenia). Her maternal grandfather Jurij was from Ptuj, Slovenia, a military pilot, and her maternal grandmother Darinka (died 2004) was from Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A maternal great-great-grandmother of hers was of aristocratic background and married a working class Montenegrin. Karleuša was born and raised in the Fontana neighborhood of New Belgrade.
Career
She began her singing career as a singer in the mid-90s and gained popularity with her debut album, Ogledalce (1995), selling more than 10,000 copies in Serbia and Montenegro. Later, she started singing pop music exclusively. She has since had several #1 hits, most of which were written by Marina Tucaković. Jelena has released ten studio albums, which charted in Serbia, Karleuša's single, "Insomnia", featuring Mirza Hamzić, was downloaded 1.5 million times from her website, just a day after its official premiere on 30 December 2009, the final night of the reality show Big Brother. "Insomnia" became the third most viewed video on YouTube, with over four million viewers for two weeks. The video was later deleted from her YouTube channel, but later re-uploaded. Her jubilee tenth studio album Diva was released on 11 June 2012. The record sold over 200.000 copies during the day of its release, becoming one of the fastest selling albums ever on Balkan and the fastest album to be certified gold. Ten months after the release of Diva, Karleuša performed guest vocals on Ferrari, a single by Karleuša's Krimi rad collaborators Teča and Nesh.
Karleuša gained international fame because of her sense of style, featured in her Instagram photos. With more than one million followers, she has the most followed account in the Balkans.
The 11th album is expected to be released in late 2016 or early 2017.
Personal life
Karleuša married Bojan Karić, the son of Serbian businessman Bogoljub Karić, in 2004. They divorced after two months. On 29 June 2008, Karleuša married Serbian football player Duško Tošić. On 7 September 2008, she gave birth to their first daughter, Atina, named after the Greek goddess Athena. Their second daughter, Nika, was born on 7 September 2009, and named after the Greek goddess of victory Nike.
In 2010, Karleuša began writing her own column for the Serbian newspaper Kurir, in which she criticized Serbian celebrities such as the politicians Boris Tadić, Čedomir Jovanović and Ivica Dačić, and singers Lepa Brena and Ceca. She stopped writing it in November 2010 as she was "afraid for her own security". Her column drew criticism, with some people stating she was just trying to draw attention. Karleuša is known for supporting the LGBT community and has received numerous awards as a gay icon. In its November 2013 issue, W magazine featured Karleuša in an article about pop stars outside the United States.
During a February 2013 interview on a television show she revealed that in 1997, in the backstage of Minimaks's talk show Minimaksovizija, Minimaks was assaulted by Serbian criminal Željko Ražnatović when he defended Karleuša after she claimed that every Serbian singer was a "whore".
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Live albums
Videography
Songs
Krimi radDiva · 2012
Slatka MalaMagija · 2005
Muskarac koji mrzi zeneDiva · 2012