Vodice Club Cancels Karleusa Concert, Cites Safety

The Hacienda club in Vodice has canceled Jelena Karleusa’s concert, which had been scheduled for August 15, the Assumption Day holiday. The club announced the decision on its social media accounts, and N1 reported the cancellation on August 10. The announcement of that show had been a topic of conversation in Croatia for days.

Organizers explained their reasoning in a statement.

“After the concert announcement triggered reactions that went far beyond the scope of a private club’s music event, we decided not to hold the concert.”

The club added a line that narrowed the decision down to a single reason.

“No performer and no event is more important than the safety of our guests.”

No other motive was given in the statement.

Why did the Vodice concert become a controversy?

Veterans’ associations and part of the public spoke out against the show. Calls for a boycott circulated online, and some people demanded the club pull the date from its schedule. Vodice Mayor Ante Cukrov weighed in as well, calling the concert inappropriate and saying that, in his view, the singer was not welcome in Vodice.

Opponents of the concert pointed to two of her earlier statements. One dates back to February 2025 and was addressed to Croatian citizens during the large student protests in Serbia. The other is from August 2025, when she wrote about a Greater Serbia on X. Both resurfaced online as soon as the concert was announced.

We covered that dispute earlier, in the article “Karleusa on Vodice: All of this is a product of a sick imagination,” when the singer first responded to the accusations. What is new here is that the concert is off, that the club has given its reason, and that she has spoken to Croatian television for the first time.

Karleusa speaks to RTL Danas

The singer spoke to the RTL Danas program on the evening of August 10. She said the cancellation did not surprise her, then sent a message that was reported the same day in both Serbia and Croatia.

“What I can tell you, as a journalist and as a person, is that no concert or performance by a Croatian singer in Serbia will ever be canceled.”

She replied briefly to the mayor’s assessment.

“I am sorry about that, because I have never in my life said a word against the Croatian people, nor will I.”

She claims her earlier statements were taken out of context and that media coverage of them was inflammatory. She repeated that she keeps her work separate from politics.

“Simply, music and politics have nothing to do with each other.”

Asked how much losing one date meant to her, she said it meant nothing at all.

“One concert more or less means nothing to me.”

But she immediately added this:

“I am very, very sorry that I am the victim of a political spin.”

In the same interview, she said that outside of Serbia, her largest fan base is in Zagreb.

What she told Informer

Karleusa also commented on the canceled date to Informer.

“As someone who comes from a country where everyone is welcome, regardless of race or nationality, I am sad that I have been prevented from spending time with my audience.”

She added that she is proud to come from Serbia.

How the story unfolded

• February 2025: appearing on Informer television, she makes a statement addressed to Croatian citizens during the protests in Serbia
• August 2025: on X, she posts about a Greater Serbia
• early August 2026: the Hacienda club announces her concert for August 15, calls for a boycott begin
• Mayor Ante Cukrov calls the visit inappropriate and says the singer is not welcome in Vodice
• August 10, 2026: the club announces the concert will not take place, Karleusa speaks to RTL Danas that same evening