Following days of heated debate and public pressure, the Hacienda club has officially announced that the Serbian singer's performance, scheduled for August 15, will not take place. Both the Mayor of Vodice and Karleuša herself have weighed in.
The concert of Serbian singer Jelena Karleuša, originally scheduled for August 15 at the Hacienda club in Vodice, has been officially canceled. The decision was confirmed by the club on Monday, August 10, 2026, with the news also relayed by the Mayor of Vodice, Ante Cukrov, bringing an end to a multi-day saga that divided Croatian public opinion.
The Hacienda club issued a statement via Instagram Stories, explaining the reasons behind the cancellation of the long-anticipated event. In the announcement, they emphasized that reactions to the concert announcement had escalated beyond the scope of a typical musical event.
"After the announcement of the concert sparked reactions that far exceeded the framework of a musical event at a private club, we made the decision not to hold the concert. No performer and no event are more important than the safety of our guests and employees. We thank our guests for their support and understanding. Hacienda remains a place of music, entertainment, and good times," they wrote.
Earlier, organizers had attempted to ease tensions by explaining that the club doors would open at 11 PM, with the concert set to begin at midnight-by which time it would already be August 16, after the Feast of the Assumption.
Vodice Mayor Ante Cukrov had previously voiced his opposition to Karleuša's arrival. In a statement to Nacional, he clarified that this was not a ban but a matter of appropriateness.
"We have nothing against anyone, and everyone is welcome in the town of Vodice; however, this is about the name and surname of a person who has publicly made negative comments about our country, and for that reason alone, she is not welcome," Cukrov said.
Following discussions with the organizers, the concert was ultimately canceled, with the club citing the safety of visitors and staff as the key reason, a point Cukrov confirmed for Info Vodice.
Before the cancellation, Jelena Karleuša released a three-minute video on TikTok in an attempt to calm the situation. She tried to distance herself from the political connotations attributed to her.
"Jelena Karleuša is not an enemy of the Croatian people, nor of any people, nor someone who comes to provoke or be a symbol of any political conflict," she stated.
However, her earlier statements, which had accumulated over the years, have fostered deep mistrust among a segment of the public. As far back as 2016, she commented on the treatment of the Serbian minority in Croatia, writing: "I love it when Croatia lectures us on the treatment of national minorities while they're mass-breaking Cyrillic signs. Sweet little fascists, boo hoo hoo." That same year, ahead of the Operation Storm anniversary, she accused Croatia of "expelling hundreds of thousands of innocent people of Serbian nationality."
The pattern continued in 2024 with the generalization "Every Croatian's grandfather killed Serbs," culminating in 2026 in a public feud with Severina. At that time, she told her colleague to "mind her own country and her own president," and criticized students in Serbia for speaking "the Croatian dialect of the Serbian language." Particularly disturbing was her statement wishing for Croatia "to experience what is happening in Serbia," alluding to the protests that erupted following the tragic deaths of 16 people in the collapse of a canopy in Novi Sad.
