Singer and actress Régine, who long reigned over the world of the night with nightclubs in France and abroad, died Sunday at the age of 92, her granddaughter, Daphné Rotcajg, announced to AFP.
“Régine left us peacefully on May 1 at 11 a.m.” in Paris, said Ms. Rotcajg.
“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 her disco ball and her warm and reassuring banter”, Régine “had made the stars of the whole world dance for more than 30 years in her nightclubs”, continues this text sent to AFP.
Régine alongside Serge Gainsbourg on October 24, 1984 in Paris
© AFP – PIERRE GUILLAUD
The singer Renaud, who wrote several titles for her, considered that she was the last historical representative of French song, known in particular 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 “Chez Régine”, near the Champs-Elysées.
Her first name has thus become “the emblem of crazy nights until dawn, herself dancing on the track until closing time”, indicates the text of 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.
“+Les petits papiers+ by Gainsbourg or +La grande Zoa+ by Frédéric Botton, but also Barbara, Sagan, Renaud, Marc Lavoine or even Serge Lama, all were inspired by the authenticity of this little Jewess hidden during the war and avoiding little Klaus Barbie roundups,” the statement continued.
She has also made films, appearing in the credits of a dozen films, such as “Jeu de massacres” by Alain Jessua, “Robert et Robert” by Claude Lelouch or “Les ripoux” by Claude Zidi.
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 we 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 I realize that the scene was the most important in my life”, said the singer and businesswoman.
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