With
Aimer
, presented as his "
ultimate album
" in stores on Friday, Serge Lama, 79, said "
farewell
" to his audience: "
at an age, you have to know when to stop...
".
“
I will continue to write songs, to record perhaps but in secret, in will
”, confides the artist met at his home by AFP.
“
You have to know how to say it's over.
I do it with this album.
I don't want to sing sitting down like Reggiani... Even Aznavour should have stopped sooner
", underlines the interpreter of Les
P'tites femmes de Pigalle
and
D'aventures en aventures
, hits among many others in nearly sixty years of career.
“
I have mobility difficulties … At my age, as soon as I walk, I suffer a lot
”, confides the singer whose last tour was canceled by the pandemic.
“
It ripped my heart out.
Now I can't last two hours on stage.
»
All the time, I sang about love which, with the sincerity I believe, have been the watchwords of my career.
If you are not sincere, the public leaves you
Serge Lama
For the farewell album, Serge Lama celebrates his reunion with the arranger Jean-Claude Petit, with whom he had shaped his first successes such as
I
am sick
and
The singer is twenty years old
in 1973 .
Claude was at the origin of my starization.
Again with him, this latest album celebrates love in all directions.
All the time, I sang about love which, with the sincerity I believe, have been the watchwords of my career.
If you are not sincere, the public leaves you...
”, observes Serge Lama.
Over the course of the twelve titles of this "
ultimate album
" - the 24th of his career - the singer, alternately serious and playful, evokes both on a duet the love which unites him to his wife Luana, as well as his admiration. unexpected for the tennis player Roger Federer or for the writer Albert Camus: “
Oh Camus, I mourn you / My hero you remain / You who died of a Dostoyevsky in the heart
”.
First recital in 1964
“
Federer fascinates me!
He's an incredible player, without the impression of effort... An admiration that is love to that extent!
“, he admits about the Swiss who has just retired.
“
I arrived late to my concerts because I watched his matches in my dressing room!
".
The time of retirement necessarily inspires him with a poignant title: "
I'm a brave little old man / In a hole in the suburbs / My life is not a party / And yet I'm stubborn
" .
With the title
Beau Mec
, he quips: "
You're like a brand new penny/At the bluffing lottery/You're like a commodity/Who believes it's going to last
".
Claiming the title of singer who performed the most concerts until his 75th birthday "
sometimes with 300 concerts a year
", Serge Lama says he gave everything for this last album: "
I put all my heart into it and all my soul...
"
Read alsoSerge Lama at the Olympia: fans, fans, fans
An inspired lyricist and renowned composer, Serge Lama wrote his first texts before adolescence.
Noticed by a singing teacher, he performed his first compositions in November 1963, opening the doors to Mireille's Petit Conservatoire, a big TV springboard at the time.
In February 1964, at the age of 21, he gave his first recital at L'Écluse, a famous Parisian cabaret of the time, opening for Barbara.
If he definitely gives up the stage, Serge Lama could accept a special program: “
on television, there are possible arrangements with the devil.
If a singer asks me to write songs for him, it will be gladly
”.
"
Comedy why not too, but for a character sitting at the limit
", he laughs.
“
I have no illusions: nothing will be remembered from me
,” he adds.
"
We won't write theses on Serge Lama... From up there, I'd be surprised to see that!"
".
