Jelena Karleuša Tošić (Serbian Cyrillic: Јелена Карлеуша; born 17 August
1978) is a Serbian singer and media personality. Born and raised
in Belgrade, she rose to prominence in the mid-1990s upon her debut
record Ogledalce. Collectively, Karleuša has released ten studio albums to
date and has held two big scale concerts: All About Diva (2010) and Viva
la Diva Show (2013); in front of 15,000 and 40,000 fans, respectively.
Having sold over million records, while also being one of the highest-
earning regional performers, she is regarded as one of the most popular
Serbian artists.[2][3] Additionally, Karleuša has been a judge and mentor on
the popular televised singing contest Zvezde Granda since 2015.
Recognized as a fashion icon, she has also developed a strong social
media presence through her personal style, becoming the first Serbian
woman, and second person overall after Novak Djokovic, to reach one
million followers on Instagram.[4] Outside music, Karleuša is also noted for
her political opinions, specially for advocating LGBT rights, freedom of
speech and social equality. Since 2008, she has been married to
footballer Duško Tošić, with whom she has two daughters. Her private life
alongside her outspoken views, have also received significant media
coverage and have sparked occasional controversy. German
magazine Focus referred to her as the "Madonna of
the Balkans",[5] while W magazine compared her to Lady Gaga.