France’s disco pioneer Regine passes away at 92

PARIS: French singer and actress Regine, who laid claim to the invention of the modern discotheque and once ran a nightclub empire from Paris to Los Angeles, died on Sunday aged 92, her granddaughter said.

Regine, born Regina Zylberberg in Belgium to Jewish Polish parents, opened her first club in Paris’s Latin Quarter in the 1950s, replacing the juke-box, ubiquitous in dance venues at the time, with turntables and disc jockeys.

The new format, she oten said, justified her claim to “the invention of the discotheque.”

She famously told reporters in 2015: “If you can’t dance, you can’t make love.”

The new discos caught on with the jet set and Regine, who became known as the “queen of the night,”openedseveralmorevenuesacrosstheworld, including “Regine’s” in New York in the 1970s, and others in Miami, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles.

“Regine let us peacefully at 11 am (0900 GMT) on this May 1,” her granddaughter Daphne Rotcajg said.

In a statement sent on behalf of Regine’s family her friend the comic Pierre Palmade said: “The queen of the night has let. Closing time following a long and great career.”

Regine “had the stars of the whole world dancing in her nightclubs,” he added.

At its height, Regine’s disco empire comprised 22 establishments, and some 20,000 people owned an exclusive membership card in the 1980s that gave them access to all of them.

Pop artist Andy Warhol, showbiz star Liza Minelli, bankers the Rothschilds, and the Kennedys were among her customers.

Her name “became synonymous with the crazy nights that lasted until the small hours,” Palmade said, adding that Regine herself would “hit the dance floor until closing time.”

Among people paying tribute to Regine was former French culture minister Jack Lang who called her a “poetic and glitering Parisian legend.”

British singer Boy George tweeted: “R.I.P to the legendary French Diva Regine! X,” and included a picture of himself with her.

“Thenightisorphaned,havinglostitsqueen,”said veteran French singer Line Renaud, also on Twiter.