Depardieu concert in Prague: Michal David and the controversy

Czech singer Michal David is organizing a Prague concert by French actor Gérard Depardieu, who was found guilty in May 2025 of sexually assaulting two women. The evening, titled “The Magic of Chanson,” is dedicated to the memory of the French singer Barbara (real name Monique Serf, 1930–1997).

Depardieu worked with Barbara in 1986 on the stage musical Lily Passion. It produced a live recording, and in 2017 a posthumous album of the same name with 11 unreleased songs.

The verdict and the appeal

Depardieu, whose career took off in the mid-1970s and includes some two hundred roles (“Les Misérables,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “Green Card,” “Asterix and Obelix,” the miniseries “The Count of Monte Cristo”), was found guilty of assaulting a props assistant and an assistant director he met in 2021 on the set of the drama “Les Volets verts.” The court gave him an 18-month suspended sentence. The verdict states that the convicted man did not understand the very concept of consent to sexual activity. The actor appealed immediately.

The appeals court in Paris will begin hearing the case on Nov. 16, just two weeks after the Prague concert, when Depardieu will still be on probation.

What the organizers say

The organizer’s representative, Luboš Procházka, said that Michal David got to know the actor during his current visits to Prague, where Depardieu has a Czech girlfriend. According to him, David is preparing a cultural evening with an international reach. Asked whether the organizer is bothered by the presence of a convicted man, Procházka replied that the actor’s trial has nothing to do with a concert in the Czech Republic.

The same recital, Depardieu chante Barbara, drew a strong wave of criticism in 2023. After protests, organizers canceled it in several French cities, including Le Havre, Lille and Bordeaux, and demonstrators disrupted concerts in Lyon and Marseille.

Ties to Russia

Depardieu is also controversial because of his links to Russia: in 2013 he received Russian citizenship from President Vladimir Putin and called the country a “great democracy.” In 2015 Ukraine banned him from entering the country for five years. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 he called Putin’s actions “crazy, unacceptable excesses,” yet kept his Russian passport. That same year he said in an interview that he had earlier obtained citizenship of the United Arab Emirates.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz