Published on 29 March 2026 at 5:04 PM
Lulu Gainsbourg opens up about his father Serge Gainsbourg on French TV show
On Saturday, 28 March, Lulu Gainsbourg was a guest on Léa Salamé’s show “Quelle Époque !” on France 2 to talk about the Grand Échiquier dedicated to his father. However, watching certain images of Serge Gainsbourg proved to be particularly difficult for the musician.
Invited on Léa Salamé’s show, Lulu Gainsbourg had to discuss a tender yet painful past. Losing his father at the age of five inevitably leaves marks, and memories sometimes come back like a dream. He shared, “He’s a dad, but unfortunately I didn’t know him that well. So I try to hold onto those five years, where we don’t remember much anyway. But I learned to know him, he left but he never really left… He’s here,” pointing to his heart. This mix of tenderness and melancholy set the stage for the rest of the episode, as Lulu was there to promote “Le Grand Échiquier,” recorded with Claire Chazal at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, soon to be aired on France 3.
Lulu Gainsbourg uncomfortable with a sequence about his father
The scene became even more intense when Hugo Clément aired two famous archives of Serge Gainsbourg in Gainsbarre. In one, he declares to Whitney Houston in front of a stunned Michel Drucker that he wants to “screw her,” and in the other, he smokes despite medical warnings: “The diagnosis was, in a year you lose your sight, and in two years your life.” Clearly uncomfortable, Lulu Gainsbourg observes these images and tries to remain stoic: “There might be a slight disagreement with himself. The doctors said that, ‘sight first, life after,’ and yet too bad…”
Tender memories recalled
Lastly, Léa Salamé revisits the day of Serge Gainsbourg’s death on March 2, 1991. Lulu remembers an afternoon spent at the piano playing the themes he learned from his father, like those from “Trois petits cochons” or “Popeye.” “It’s been 35 years since I’ve been playing them,” he says softly. And he adds, “He would have wanted me to be a pianist, and that’s what I am now.” Between tribute and memory, the son of Serge Gainsbourg opens up with emotion, revealing both his grief and pride in continuing his father’s musical legacy.
