Régine, popular singer and figure of Parisian nights, died at 92

She had charmed Henri Salvador, Charles Aznavour and Barbara. The singer and actress Régine, who has long reigned over the world of nightlife with discos in France and abroad, died on Sunday May 1, at the age of 92, her granddaughter, Daphné Rotcajg, announced to AFP. . “Régine left us peacefully on May 1 at 11 a.m.” in the Paris region, she said.

“The Queen of the Night is leaving: closure due to a long and great career”indicates a press release written, at the request of the family, by comedian Pierre Palmade, a close friend of Régine for many years. “Left with his disco ball and his warm and reassuring banter”, Regine “had danced for more than 30 years in its nightclubs the stars of the whole world”continues this text sent to AFP.

The “queen of the night” also performed over 250 songs including many popular hits. Singer Renaud, who wrote several songs for her, considered her to be the “last historical representative of French song”known especially for La grande Zoa, Azzurro, Les p’tits papiers or Patchouli Chinchilla.

She owned up to 22 nightclubs that bore her first name around the world, starting with the mythical “At Regina”near the Champs-Elysées. His first name became like this “the emblem of crazy nights until dawn, dancing herself on the floor until closing time”, according to text by Pierre Palmade.

Régina Zylbergerg was born on December 26, 1929 in Anderlecht (Belgium), to Polish Jewish parents. In Aix-en-Provence, in 1941, she escaped deportation thanks to non-Jewish Frenchmen. “Gainsbourg’s little papers or Frédéric Botton’s La grande Zoa, but also Barbara, Sagan, Renaud, Marc Lavoine and Serge Lama, all were inspired by the authenticity of this little Jewess hidden during the war and barely avoiding roundups by Klaus Barbie”continues the press release. She has also acted in the cinema, appearing in the credits of a dozen films such as killing game by Alain Jessúa, robert and robert by Claude Lelouch or Crooked cops by Claude Zidi.

A friend entrusts him with the animation of a discotheque in the center of Paris, rue de Beaujolais, “Whisky galore”, where she meets a newbie named Serge Gainsbourg. The young girl knows how to set the mood, sometimes has fun dancing with a full glass on her head, but prides herself on never drinking alcohol. In 1956, she opened her first nightclub, “At Regina”, in the Latin district. Will follow the opening in Montparnasse of “New Jimmy’s”the club where you dance wild twists. “Time spent sleeping is time wasted”, assured this tireless party girl. Nicknamed “the Great Zoa”, it opened night establishments in New York and Monaco, then in Brazil and Malaysia. Régine, then wearing a mullet as red as her boa, will manage a total of twenty discotheques. Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli, the Rothschilds or the Kennedys frequent his clubs

In the 1960s, after passing through the Olympia, she sang at Carnegie Hall in New York, becoming, notably with Edith Piaf, one of the rare French women to have conquered America. She also performed in Bobino.

“My greatest joy would be that people still listen to my songs in fifty years”, she confided to AFP in 2020. “I am very proud that some of them have become classics of variety. (…) My first job was in discotheques. For a long time, singing was just a hobby. Today, I realize that the scene was the most important in my life”said the singer and businesswoman.

In 2009, she had to sell her nightclub “At Regina” from the rue de Ponthieu, long an unmissable meeting place for the golden youth of Paris near the Champs-Elysées.

The one who said she spends a fortune every day then claims to be “ruined”. This does not prevent him from multiplying talk shows and concerts. Wrapped in her legendary boa, at 86, she was still singing in 2016 at the Folies-Bergères with her usual enthusiasm, “I will Survive”, cover of Gloria Gaynor’s hit.


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