Karleusa Cancellation Adds to Croatia Concert List
The Vodice show, set for August 15, is the newest entry on a list that opens with Riblja Corba in Pula in 2010. Mondo and Novosti published a combined overview on August 12, sorted by city and year.
Jelena Karleusa’s concert in Vodice, scheduled for August 15, has been cancelled after backlash from part of the public and local veterans’ associations. On August 12, Mondo and Novosti published a combined review of similar cases across Croatia, complete with cities and years, and the list shows that Vodice is not an isolated case but the latest entry in a run that stretches back sixteen years.
Until now this had been covered as a story about one city and one date. Now there is a list.
The decision in Vodice followed criticism of the singer’s earlier public statements, backlash from part of the public and local veterans’ associations, and a meeting between the mayor and the venue’s management. The date was pulled afterward.
Karleusa responded by phone, in a statement to Croatia’s RTL. She said her words had been taken out of context and denied making any statements directed against the Croatian people. She explained that her earlier comments concerned public figures interfering in political matters in Serbia, not the citizens of Croatia. She said she regretted that the show was cancelled, especially since Croatian colleagues perform in Serbia without any trouble, and that she hoped the tensions would ease so she could perform for that audience again.
The list: who lost a date, where, and when
According to the overview published by Mondo and Novosti, here is how the sequence lines up:
- 2010, Pula: Riblja Corba, the oldest case on the list
- 2018, Karlovac: Bajaga i Instruktori
- 2020, Opatija: Zeljko Joksimovic
- 2023, Pula: Ana Bekuta, Dragan Kojic Keba, Dusko Kulis and Zorana Micanovic
- 2023, Barbarinac: Jelena Karleusa and Aca Lukas
- 2023, Benkovac: Goga Sekulic
- 2023, Bibinje: Sasa Kovacevic
- 2025, Solin: Bajaga i Instruktori, for the second time
- 2026, Vodice: Jelena Karleusa
Two acts appear twice. Bajaga i Instruktori show up on the list two times, in Karlovac and, seven years later, in Solin. Karleusa is also there twice, in Barbarinac and now in Vodice.
Why was 2023 the busiest year on the list?
Because eight of the thirteen cancellations listed happened that year, across four different towns: Pula, Barbarinac, Benkovac and Bibinje. Neither review explains why so many cases piled up in a single season, so we will not interpret that on their behalf either.
What the two reviews do lay out is a pattern that keeps repeating. Performers would become a target for some local residents and so called Croatian veterans’ groups in those towns, public campaigns and petitions would follow, and the shows would eventually be cancelled. The same pattern shaped the decision in Vodice, with the added step of the mayor meeting the organizer.
What remains open
The August 15 date in Vodice has been pulled, and the singer has not announced a new one. Mondo and Novosti close their review with an ellipsis, since they only listed cases that received media coverage.
The geography of the list is narrow. Pula accounts for five of the cancelled shows, spanning 2010 to 2023, making it the only city that recurs across multiple years. Every other town appears once, mostly along the Dalmatian and Istrian coast, where the concert season is essentially a summer affair. Karlovac is the only inland city on the list.
For audiences who already bought tickets, a practical question remains open: refunds, on which neither review offers any information.
