Lemon Incest

"Lemon Incest"
"Lemon Incest"
Single by Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg
from the album Love on the Beat and Charlotte for Ever
B-side	"Hmm Hmm Hmm"
Released	1985
Recorded	1984
Genre	Pop; new wave;
Length	5:12
Label	Philips
Songwriter(s)	Serge Gainsbourg; Frédéric Chopin;
Producer(s)	Philippe Lerichomme; Billy Rush;
Serge Gainsbourg singles chronology
Charlotte Gainsbourg singles chronology

"Lemon Incest" is a song recorded by French father and daughter Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It was recorded in 1984 and released as a single from Serge's 1985 album Love on the Beat and on Charlotte's 1986 debut album Charlotte For Ever, marking her musical debut.

"Lemon Incest" is a pop song about a relationship between Serge and Charlotte, the latter of whom was 12 or 13 years old at the time, set to the melody of Frédéric Chopin's Étude Op. 10, No. 3. Its title is a play on the French term un zeste de citron, which translates to lemon zest in English.

"Lemon Incest" and its music video, which showed Serge and Charlotte half-naked together in bed, were highly controversial in France due to their implications of pedophilia and incest. As an adult, Charlotte routinely defended the song, which both she and Serge have denied was about incest. Some critics described the lyrics as disturbing and the song as creepy. It peaked at number two in France, where it spent 14 weeks on the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) chart and was also certified silver by the SNEP.