Karleusa on Pink: Jozinovic Is a Karaoke Singer

Singer Jelena Karleusa called singer Jakov Jozinovic a karaoke singer on the TV Pink morning show on Friday, October 16, and described his song “Ja volim kad si tu” as plagiarism. After the broadcast, outside the Pink building in Dedinje, she told Telegraf she is not in favor of banning concerts by such performers.

Jozinovic has been at the center of a debate in Serbia since a video circulated of him singing a song by Marko Perkovic Thompson that deals with wartime events. Some people are demanding that he be barred from entering the country, and Karleusa addressed exactly that on the show.

What did Karleusa say about Jozinovic on the show?

She assessed the song this way:

“This is called classic plagiarism in the musical sense, here it is identical for more than five bars.”

She added that she does not know whether the song is a hit, but that his breakthrough on the Serbian market is one, because he has “a career bigger than some who have decades behind them.” The plagiarism claim is hers, and the statements reported so far contain no expert analysis of the song.

She then explained why she was the first to react:

“I was the first to raise my voice, unfortunately the only one, because I thought it was not right for someone to use somebody else’s work, sweat and blood to make concerts, and those people are alive and well. It can be a tribute or a karaoke party. He is a karaoke singer.”

She called Jozinovic a serious project of the Croatian state and compared it with Albania’s promotion of Dua Lipa. When the hosts mentioned that he started out singing in a Catholic church choir, she replied that it is about “how a state infiltrates its youth,” that he “works closely with the Catholic Church,” and that he “came to Serbia with a serious budget and organization.” She gave no figures for that budget.

Why did Karleusa bring up Severina?

She named Croatian singer Severina as a second example of the same story:

“Croats have a project called Severina, and I reacted to her open attacks on everything Serbian.”

She also said: “Let her mind her own country and her own president.” After the show she told Telegraf she reacted because, as she claims, Severina said that the Serbian people are the ones who should end up in Jasenovac. We could not find Severina’s statement or her response to Karleusa in the reports we reviewed.

On the show Karleusa also talked about money: “There is another problem, and that is the management behind it all, for whom it is about money. Cash is spinning everywhere and it matters more than any patriotic feeling.”

Does Karleusa want Jozinovic banned?

She does not. She told a Telegraf reporter this after her appearance, when asked whether such singers should be banned from performing. On the show she had spoken about bans differently, mentioning concerts by Serbian stars, and said: “They did not ban me, I did not even try to get in.” To Telegraf she said:

“I am not for a ban, precisely because I am a victim of a ban.”

In the same conversation she said Serbia should apply reciprocity when it comes to bans, because, in her words, Serbian singers get banned, her in particular. About Jozinovic she added:

“I also think that any bans Serbia might introduce, for example against Jakov, should not be a matter of a state order but of a moral decision by everyone who will buy a ticket.”

Asked about colleagues who backed him, she said: “You mean those singers who ran to the front rows to celebrate a guy who does not have a single song of his own? I think they were simply misled, like a large part of the audience.” We also wrote about singers’ reactions when Kuzmancevic called out the performers who supported Jozinovic.

Singer Azra Husarkic was also in the studio, and Karleusa praised her: “She is beautiful. For all singers who are talented, good looking, young, who are not poisoned by politics and some kind of national and religious divisions, Serbia and Belgrade have open arms.”

What did she say about a third child and about Sevo?

The conversation with Telegraf turned to her daughters. The older one studies in Milan, and Karleusa described how she lives:

“She was raised to live a normal life, here in Serbia too. She has a rented apartment there, she even has a roommate she splits costs with, she gets around by bike.”

Her younger daughter attends high school in Serbia. Asked how she would cope if she left too, Karleusa answered: “maybe I will have a third child so I have something to keep me busy. You never know!” She added that she has dogs and cats, friends and work, and that, as she put it: “I am never lonely.” She heads straight from the studio to North Macedonia: “tomorrow night I have a big concert in Skopje,” she said, which means October 17.

Telegraf reports that its crew filmed Karleusa leaving the Pink building with Aleksandar Sevo, whom the media describe as a partner 25 years her junior. According to that report, they walked to a car holding hands, and he opened the door for her. Karleusa has not directly confirmed the relationship.

What did she say about Milica Pavlovic?

In a separate interview, for a Macedonian podcast, Karleusa was asked whether she would reconcile with Milica Pavlovic and answered: “Reconcile? Yes. Why not? We never even fought.” Asked whether, given everything, she would delete their joint duet “MashAllah” from her discography, she said she would not. Kurir reports that Milica Pavlovic has not commented on this. The podcast recording date was not given, so it is unclear whether the statement is older than this morning’s appearance.