Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Greta Thunberg Dancing To Madonna's 'La Isla Bonita' -- It's Ukrainian

Fact Check

  • by: Alan Duke
Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Greta Thunberg Dancing To Madonna's 'La Isla Bonita' -- It's Ukrainian Not Greta

Does a video shared on social platforms show Greta Thunberg dancing to Madonna's "La Isla Bonita"? No, that's not true: A reverse image search revealed the video was created by a group of Ukrainian video makers known as Cucumber Mafia. The dancing woman does not look like Thunberg and appears to be much older than twenty-two, which was Thunberg's age at the time the video was published.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published by the @JDunlap1974 account on X on July 8, 2025. The caption read:

Greta Thunberg tries her luck at dancing and being cool....

Is it working?

This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:

Screenshot 2025-07-09 095213.png

(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)

A close look at the woman featured in the dancing video revealed significant differences, including age, from climate activist Greta Thunberg. A reverse image search confirmed the suspicion. The same video (archived here) was uploaded to TikTok on the @cucumber_mafia account on July 3, 2025 -- five days before the X post was shared.

@cucumber_mafia

♬ som original - kabanamaster.ai

Cucumber Mafia's TikTok account, which has 677,000 followers at the time of writing, features comedic skits and dances using the same dancers in the purported Thunberg video.

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  Alan Duke

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

Read more about or contact Alan Duke

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