A new track with a repetitive beat and just the words, "Yanis Varoufakis," has blown up in popularity in the club scene in Russia. Someone on X brought attention to this phenomenon on March 20, and since then, the track has spread across social media as folks fall in love with its catchy beat.
Who is Yanis Varoufakis?
Yanis Varoufakis is the former Greek Minister of Finance who was in office in 2015 during the longstanding Greek government debt crisis that ended in 2018 after he left office.
He is a left-wing economist and activist who is currently the Secretary-General of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25). It is a left-wing pan-European political party that Varoufakis co-founded in 2016.
Interestingly, this isn't the first time Varoufakis has been featured in a song. A 2015 song titled "V for Varoufakis" by Jan Böhmermann came out early on in his tenure as the Minister of Finance.
It features mostly English lyrics and is a satire-filled spoken word song that makes fun of Germany and German stereotypes while praising Varoufakis as a "lost son of Zeus" and calling him the "Greek Minister of Awesome! Relentless Varoufakis!"
The music video even features an actor who looks like Varoufakis going absolutely wild along with the lyrics.
Varoufakis also wrote the lyrics for an Albanian folk song in 2016, which was composed for Albania’s Biennale. His lyrics spoke of "being away from home and separated from his daughter, living far away from her," according to one of the project curators.
Notably, Varoufakis is currently facing drug charges for admitting on a podcast his experience with drugs nearly 40 years ago and warning people away from using them. Many people are calling the charges politically motivated, given the length of time since the events happened.
"Yanis Varoufakis" song origins
The viral track was created by Russian DJ Sasha Melior, who is based in Moscow. According to Russia-based Irish journalist Brian McDonald, whose tweet about the track went viral, "the tune has taken off among zoomers, with critics linking its appeal to a revival of 90s/early 2000s techno."
He added in his tweet that its popularity is ironic because the majority of the club-goers hearing the song "likely have no idea who [Varoufakis] is, they just like the rhythm of the name."
In speaking with the Daily Dot via Instagram DM, Sasha Melior shared that his inspiration for the track came from first learning about him in university.
Melior said he "found out that he’s this cool, non-conformist guy, kind of a rebel. Plus, his name is not like the other names, it’s perfect for a viral track — ‘kis kis’, ‘fakis. It doesn’t make any sense, but it sticks in your head. That’s how the idea of this track came to me -- I came home and decided to generate something catchy and viral and then posted it on my social media."
He added, "The name sounds catchy and unusual, and I guess that’s what makes it viral. His name is already energetic and charismatic, what else could I add to the track except for parts of his name? 'Yanis Varufakis' has a certain energy and is expressive on its own. Anyway, I didn’t put any deeper meaning into it."
"By the way, when I looked him up after the track got viral," Melior told the Daily Dot. "I noticed he was described as a rock star of economics. That was a funny coincidence - viral track, rock star…"
He was shocked to learn that his video from the Moscow club had gone viral on X after people tracked down his Instagram profile, which was visible in one of the videos, and told him in the comments.
Reactions on social media
People on X were all about what they called a "banger" of a techno song. Many praised its catchiness, while others shared links to the 2015 song about Varoufakis.
@_AlexBPsych joked, "So that’s what techno-feudalism really is…"
"Knowing the internet, this will somehow be the gateway drug for someone who ends up uncovering some conspiracy related to the EU financial crisis that made Varoufakis famous," @SA_Greatness suggested.
@x_El_Capitan_x added, "Between the sigma boy song and the whole varoufakis party drug saga turned song they’re kinda cooking over there ngl."
Then @TylerGr31195248 pointed out a potential connection for the reason behind the song's popularity. They wrote, "well, in russian it kinda sounds like 'I don't believe' and then the english phrase 'f*ck it' so there's also that. Like how they really like the line 'God knows…' from Queen bc is sounds like a curse in russian."
One person wrote on the original Instagram video, "bro you are going viral on X … You should drop this track 👌👌"
Meanwhile, @melomakavrios told the DJ they came looking for the track from X, to which Melior replied that he was "shocked."
People were calling for the DJ to release the track on Spotify. Melior told the Daily Dot that he just released the song on SoundCloud and is working on getting it published on other platforms.
"As for the track going viral, I didn’t expect that because I was doing this just for fun - posting it on Instagram, then playing it at parties," he said. "I’ve actually just released it on SoundCloud, because so many people, from Europe and especially Greece, too, were asking whether the track had been published anywhere. Now I’m also in the process of releasing it on other platforms, including Russian ones."
Yanis Varoufakis did not respond immediately to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.
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