Karleusa Announces New Instagram Account for August 17

Jelena Karleusa announced on the evening of August 11, from her @karlinbich account on X, that she is returning to Instagram. She picked the date herself, and it is not a coincidence: August 17, her birthday.

The announcement fit into a single sentence.

“On my birthday, August 17, I will open a new Instagram profile,” the singer wrote, alongside a mending heart emoji.

Nothing else. No preview of content, no explanation, no name for the new account. The news spread across domestic outlets before midnight, and Republika published it at 11:55 p.m.

Why the old account was shut down

Jelena Karleusa’s previous Instagram account was shut down on February 10. It disappeared after a wave of reports that began piling up following her public comments about demolitions and blockades.

That account was not a side channel. It had over 2.5 million followers, and it was the platform through which she ran collaborations with global brands. For years it was where she posted outfits, announced performances, shared glimpses of her private life, and voiced opinions that regularly landed her in the headlines.

Six months have passed since February without that account. In the meantime, she has mostly communicated through X and through statements to the media.

The comeback lands amid the Vodice story

The announcement comes while the story of her canceled show in Croatia is still not dying down. Karleusa also spoke about Vodice to RTL Danas, where she said she had expected such an outcome and that she regrets the situation. We reported on that story and her response earlier.

Her statement to that broadcaster read:

Well, that is what I thought would happen, and I am not surprised. That is what I assumed. 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. There, now you know. That is it. I am that influential, that I can say this. I expected this to happen. I am sorry about it, because I have never in my life said a word against the Croatian people, and I never will. This is a huge manipulation and a twisting of my words, taken out of context. I made political statements, not statements against any people, whichever people, including the Croatian one. I am sorry, I expected this, and I hope we will see each other once all this madness and hatred passes. And I say again, all Croatian colleagues are welcome here, and I, as a singer, can guarantee that.

In that statement she drew a line she has been repeating for months: political statements yes, statements against an entire people no. That did not put the Vodice show back on the calendar.

What we know about the new account

Not much, and that is the point of the announcement. Karleusa gave the date and nothing else. She did not say under what name she is opening the account, nor whether she will move content from the old one, which is no longer accessible to her.

A short timeline, to keep things in order:

• February 10, 2026, her Instagram account, with over 2.5 million followers, was shut down after a large number of reports
• Summer 2026, her Vodice show was canceled, followed by her response to RTL Danas
• August 11, 2026, the announcement on X with the comeback date
• August 17, 2026, the day she announced for the new account’s launch

For a singer who spent decades building her audience precisely through social media, six months off Instagram is a long stretch. Follower counts do not carry over, they build up from zero.

How followers reacted

The post on X drew a large number of reactions within the first few hours. Part of the audience had been waiting for her return since February, so the announcement got coverage both on news portals and across social media, even though it was a single sentence without a single extra detail.

The next move is hers, and it already has a date attached. If she follows through, Jelena Karleusa’s new Instagram profile will go live on Monday, August 17.