Serge Lama: "The song lives in gloomy times"

In the galaxy of French song, Serge Lama holds a special place.

Prolific author, interpreter of thwarted loves (

), of the life of Napoleon (a successful musical in the 1980s) or of the French spirit (

) and big mouth, he crossed fifty years of popular culture.

The stage man retired last December with a final album (

).

In a very good documentary broadcast this Friday on France 3, Mireille Dumas looks back on the 50-year career of this artist who, despite his musical retirement, is teeming with projects.

LE

Serge LAMA.- It's the anguish and fear since my car accident that forced me to go beyond myself and to multiply myself in a way.

I almost became someone else.

I had to be stronger than life.

This is also why I stop because there is a moment when it is life that is stronger than you.

I've seen singers stop too late.

We saw things on stage that were very regrettable.

I didn't want that to happen to me and sing sitting down like Charles Trenet.

Your last album is rather optimistic.

I don't know if it's optimistic, but it's an album that talks about love in the big sense of the word.

"Tomorrow is ours" is a UFO which illuminates the disc and which can give a particular flavor.

I wanted to leave that to my audience, especially since because of the Covid, I couldn't perform on stage.

Michel does not have the same temperament.

You know, I've talked a lot about love in my career.

And when you're a singer, you always end up telling the same song, but differently.

We sing all our life

,

.

These are always the same themes because they are the ones that inhabit you.

The documentary reviews more than 50

I have been very lucky.

Because despite the strength and ambition, it is still risky to succeed in this profession.

There were people I saw starting out and I thought he would make a career out of it.

They disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

Others have made a career when I did not believe it.

This job has no logic apart from work and willpower.

Mireille Dumas points to your authorship, too long forgotten...

You put your finger on what hurts: we didn't discuss the singer or the Lama phenomenon at the time;

but what we discussed in the salons was the quality of the texts, which was not what we expected.

I was a stage singer, I wrote to perform these songs in front of the public.

The scene is a fight.

I was leading this fight 300 dates a year.

It was necessary that my songs hold the road - it is the good expression.

The scene is the most important for an artist.

It's a way to express yourself and reinterpret songs that the public knows by heart.

On stage, I detached myself from the songs on the album.

Every night there was a different soul and you have to sing according to that soul.

To read also "The France of Michel Sardou and that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon are not so different"

Sardou,

It has no relation: Eddy is a rocker, Sardou the greatest popular singer with Johnny.

I stayed on a ridge line.

I traced my path with one objective: the French language first.

I have never been influenced by the Anglo-Saxons.

Does the France of 2023 have a good climate for writing

It does not seem easy to me to create today.

We can't say anything more.

There is a climate of anxiety because when we say things, we are attacked by 25 associations.

We no longer say the obvious, we do ni-nor.

It's not in my nature to go there.

We cannot slow down the pen at each comma for fear of shocking.

French culture is disappearing.

We see authors arrive who no longer know words and their power over the imagination or over happiness.

Serge Lama

We see that the song struggles to bring out many artists who speak to all generations.

Is the French variety still popular?

I don't know how to answer this question.

That's what's happening in the business right now, but things can go back to the way they were.

All it takes is two threes that stand out and relaunch the popular song machine.

The song has been living in gloomy times for a few years.

There is cultural communitarianism: everyone is in their own lane.

I also notice that we are losing words.

French culture is disappearing.

We see authors arrive who no longer know words and their power over the imagination or over happiness.

What advice would you give to a young singer who would start in the profession?

He has to find a good musical companion and above all he has to sing in French.

But today, if you sing French, you are banned from the radios.

It is the scene that will give a chance.

Vianney and Julien Doré are the only ones who stay afloat.

They followed this good curve.

I would have hoped that others would join in and that created a movement to relaunch popular songs.

In your disc there is a very topical song "The pensioner" where you write: "I feel useless".

No, because I keep my promises (laughs).