Jelena Tomašević

Jelena Tomašević is a Serbian pop singer whose music draws on folk and ethno traditions, born on 1 November 1983 in Negotin and raised in Kragujevac. She began performing at around seven, won the top award at the Kragujevac children's festival Šarenijada at eight, and won a prize at the Yugoslav Children's Festival in 1994. With the Abrašević folklore ensemble in Kragujevac she sang traditional Serbian music and was named best vocal soloist, and the flautist Bora Dugić recognised her talent early.

At eighteen she won the RTS talent show 3K dur and began working with established musicians, among them Kornelije Kovač, Vlado Georgiev, for whom she sang backing vocals, and Zdravko Čolić. In 2003 she sang "Rano da veruješ" at the Budva festival and finished second at Slavianski Bazaar in Belarus with "Zlatni dan", and in 2004 she entered Beovizija with "Kad' ne bude tvoje ljubavi".

In 2005 she moved to Belgrade, began working with Željko Joksimović and joined the label Minacord. She won Beovizija 2005 with "Jutro" and finished second at Evropesma, and she sang on the soundtrack of the film Ivkova slava. In 2008 she won Beovizija with "Oro", composed by Joksimović with words by Dejan Ivanović, and represented Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, together with Bora Dugić, finishing sixth in the final.

Her debut album, Panta rei, came out on Minacord in October 2008, with most of its fifteen songs composed by Joksimović. In 2009 she recorded the peace song "Time to Pray" with Sirusho and Boaz Mauda, with words by Shimon Peres, and in 2010 "Gde da odem da te ne volim" for the Toše Proeski tribute album Toše i prijatelji. Her second album, Ime moje, followed on City Records in 2015, and the third, Iskrena, in May 2024, with singles such as "Dobro jutro ljubavi", "Suncokret" and "Ne žalim".

In 2024 her song "Veruj mi da verujem" won the Beogradsko proleće festival, and Jelena Tomašević was named female singer of the year at the Naxi Star Awards in 2023 and 2024. She sat on the jury of the children's talent show Pinkove zvezdice from 2014 to 2018 and has appeared in the musical Beli ždralovi. She married the actor Ivan Bosiljčić on 28 August 2011, and their daughter Nina was born in January 2012.