Serge Lebrasse

Joseph Emmanuel Serge Lebrasse is known as Serge Lebrasse for the Mauritians and mostly known as the icon of Mauritian Sega. Serge was born on June 25, 1930 in Rose Hill. He is the eldest child in his family of 4 children. He was only 9 years old when he lost his father. He used to go to St Enfant Jesus for his primary school. After the death of his father, his mother was the only bread earner of the house and thus he had to work as a seamstress to be able to sustain their needs.

At the age of 14 Serge had to stop school as the island was going through the polio outbreak and he started working in a textile factory. During that period, he was diagnosed with a heart problem, which led him to be in bed for three months.

At the age of 18 or more precisely in 1948, he secretly sent his application in the British Army for enrollment. In very less time he was accepted and soon went to Egypt for World War II, for three years. After the three years, he returned back to Mauritius, he started working in several schools as a teacher from 1952 to 1969.

He got married to his beautiful wife in 1954 and from their union were born four children. After that time, he was sick again and thus had to quit his job as a teacher. He then got back into music as a profession when he met with Philippe Ossan. This pushed him to become a music teacher. He started writing songs even though sega was not very much appreciated that time as it was considered as a vulgar type of song.

He wrote his first song “Madame Eugene”, which he thought will not become a success but it became a success. He is the one who sang for the first independence day along with Alain Permal and Cyril Labonne. With all this success and experience, Serge became the most known singer after Ti Frere. He was awarded the Medal of the City of Beau-Bassin Rose-Hill in 2000. He was also greeted by Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Margareth.