Régine, businesswoman, singer and actress, the one Françoise Sagan had baptized “the black queen of our sleepless nights” died on Sunday May 1 at the age of 92, her granddaughter, Daphné Rotcajg, announced to Agence France-Presse. “Régine left us peacefully on May 1 at 11 a.m.” in the Paris region, said Ms. Rotcajg.
Her real name Régina Zylberberg, Régine was born on December 26, 1929 in Anderlecht, Belgium to Polish Jewish parents. She was 3 years old when her father, an inveterate gambler, lost the family bakery in poker. The whole family then left Belgium to settle in Paris. After the war, his father opened a café, La Lumière de Belleville. She cut her teeth there by serving customers at the counter. In 1952, she ran the bar of a fashionable establishment, Le Whiskey à Gogo, where she tinkered with the jukebox to play dance music. Françoise Sagan set up her headquarters there and decided to give her interviews there. In 1956, Régine set up on her own and opened her own nightclub, Chez Régine, rue du Four, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The success is immediate.
In the early 1960s, she opened Le New Jimmy’s in the Montparnasse district and got all of Paris swaying by broadcasting hits imported from the United States. It thus contributes to the success of new dances such as the twist or the cha-cha-cha. Régine welcomes those who are not yet called people but stars, men of letters, comedians and other wealthy night owls.
Thus was born the “queen of the night”. His empire will span twenty-three clubs around the world. In 1987, Régine delivered to Monde his love for that particular moment of the night when “People are more fragile, more open to emotion, to friendship. The business mask is no longer on their face. They no longer have to fight to defend what they are selling. (…) Loyalty to places is important. My discos to me, it’s a bit like the house where we return after having had our buttocks pinched in a somewhat dodgy place, it’s the return home”.
“Not a bathroom singer”
In 1992, she took over one of the temples of Parisian nightlife, the Palace. But, following several legal disputes related to the consumption of drugs, the legendary club closed its doors in 1996. And it was in 2003 that Régine said goodbye to the world of the night by selling all its establishments, however remaining the owner of her brand.
“I’m not a bathroom singer, I need the lights, the stage, that’s all I like, I’m an exhibitionist. »
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