Is the mystery woman in Pulp's 'Common People' really Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis' wife?

The Athens Voice thinks so…

Hazel Sheffield
Thursday 07 May 2015 16:54 BST
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Danae Stratou studied at St. Martins College of Art and Design between 1983 and 1988
Danae Stratou studied at St. Martins College of Art and Design between 1983 and 1988 (AP)

One of pop culture's enduring mysteries may have just been solved. Greek paper the Athens Voice has revealed that the wife of Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek Finance minister, could be the rich art student Jarvis Cocker wrote about in Pulp's single 'Common People'.

Danae Stratou studied at St. Martins College of Art and Design between 1983 and 1988, the same year Cocker enrolled in a film studies course there during a break from the band. He told NME in 2013 that he met the Greek girl in the song during ‘Crossover Fortnight’, when St Martins students switched into another discipline for two weeks.

In a later interview Cocker remembered a conversation with the Greek woman who "wanted to move to Hackney and live like 'the common people'". He used this as the basis for the song. But the identity of the woman has never been discovered, despite a search launched by BBC3.

Stratou is the eldest daughter of a Greek industrialist. Her mother is an artist and sculptor and she started making small sculptures as a child before specialising at St Martins.

Varoufakis is one of the key politicians in Greece's Syriza party - a radical left wing group whose members are known for not wearing formal ties in solidarity with working people. Sounds like Stratou may have found her common people in the end.

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