New York (AFP)

Nearly three decades after the death of Serge Gainsbourg, his former partner Jane Birkin continues to bring his music to life around the world with a tribute tour that stops on Wednesday in New York, a city in which the singer had never had the opportunity to happen.

Before going on stage in the "big apple", accompanied by a symphony orchestra, the 73-year-old artist confided in AFP in his hotel room in Manhattan.

The new version of her show - born in Montreal in 2016 with a performance that she initially did not expect to repeat - includes appearances by Charlotte Gainsbourg, the girl she had with Serge, as well as the famous rocker Iggy Pop .

"He would have been so thrilled to be in New York. He could never sing there," said Jane Birkin of her former accomplice, who died in 1991 of a heart attack at the age of 62. "It's fun now to take it everywhere."

"I don't think I could do better for Serge. Or for me, by the way," adds the British actress, model and singer, naturalized French.

The famous couple met in 1969 during the shooting of the film "Slogan" and stayed together until their breakup in 1980.

"It was the best relationship. He knew he could always count on me, and I knew I could always count on him," said Jane Birkin.

She explains having kept, because of her singular talent and her humor, a great admiration for the one who was 18 years older. "There are a lot of brilliant people who can be tedious and even boring."

"Serge was more of a trainer," she says, defining the look of Gainsbourg, with his three-day beard and bare ankles, as being "pre-hipster".

"All the girls got back with him because it was fun to be by his side. It was perhaps the most touching of his secrets - that, and the fact that he was an eternal teenager."

- #MeToo and Polanski -

Despite these sweet memories, the French singer was also known for his provocations, and was often the source of scandals.

He notably performed a song entitled "Lemon Incest" in duet with his daughter Charlotte, then aged 12 years. He also announced on television, in crude terms, that he wanted to sleep with actress Whitney Houston, and his daring song "I love you ... me neither" was condemned by the Vatican.

The artist wrote this song full of explicit moans of pleasure for his former lover Brigitte Bardot, but recorded it in 1969 with Jane Birkin.

"We couldn't do better than being banished by the Pope. + Lemon Incest + was also a bit risky," recalls the latter.

"Everything is so politically correct today, but I know it would have remained just as outrageous, because that was the funniest part," she said.

Jane Birkin, however, supports the #MeToo movement, which has pushed many women to condemn the reprehensible behavior of powerful men: "I am happy that it has enabled women to face those who tormented them".

But when asked about the recent outcry provoked by the distinction recently obtained by director Roman Polanski at the Césars, the singer said that he had the right to be among the winners.

"People have a vote. If they don't want to vote for him, don't vote for him," she said of Polanski, who has been the subject of several rape charges.

Jane Birkin applauds the wind of change blowing in her industry, while admitting to believing that "women today know that they can say no".

"I also think that boys are very well educated" on the issue of sexual consent, she explains. "We know it will never be the same again. And so much the better."

© 2020 AFP