Gaëtan Roussel, a prominent figure from the group Louise Attaque in the 1990s, has been pursuing a rich and diverse career for several years. Between solo projects, experiences in radio, television, and film, where he appeared in the movie “Le Fil” by Daniel Auteuil released in 2024, the 53-year-old artist has continuously reinvented himself. In an interview with Le Monde on Sunday, April 19, he also discussed a much more personal period of his life. The year 2024 was particularly challenging for him, marked by the sudden death of his father at the age of 70 while battling cancer.
“It’s someone I had on the phone at 5 pm…”
In the interview with Le Monde, Gaëtan Roussel delicately discusses the brutality of this loss. “I am not very keen on telling my life story. My dad was young, he was 70 years old. It’s someone I had on the phone at 5 pm and with whom I can never talk about my life again,” he said. A sudden disappearance that occurred overnight, while the year 2024 was already marked by another trial.
Stating that “there is zero preparation for that,” Roussel, who joined the Enfoirés in 2024, talks about the period when death and illness collided. At the time of his father’s passing, he was indeed fighting against cancer. His songs “Nos blessures” and “Mes prières” reflect on this particularly painful year, marked by death and illness that came without warning.
A childhood marked by relocations
The singer-songwriter also opened up about his childhood, describing it as particularly eventful. He revealed that he spent “the first ten years of his life” all over France, following his father’s professional changes. His father, a mathematics teacher and later a middle school principal, regularly changed schools, forcing his son to constantly adapt to new environments and often form fleeting connections.
An essential figure in his life, whose loss in 2024 resonates even more deeply as it occurred during a challenging year for the singer, while he himself was battling illness.
