"Régine left us peacefully on May 1 at 11 a.m." in Paris, her granddaughter, Daphné Rotcajg, told AFP.

"The queen of the night is leaving: closure due to a long and great career," said comedian Pierre Palmade, a close friend of Régine for many years, in a press release written at the request of the family.

"Leaving with her disco ball and her warm and reassuring banter", she "had made the stars of the whole world dance for more than 30 years in her nightclubs", continues this text sent to AFP.

French singer Régine poses after winning the best 1969 French song prize, on May 24, 1969 in Paris.

-AFP/Archives

The rendezvous of All-Paris

An icon of the 1960s, she owned up to 22 discotheques that bore her first name all over the world, starting with the mythical "Chez Régine" near the Champs-Elysées, which quickly became the meeting place for all of Paris and of the jet set.

It was she who had the "jukeboxes" (automatic distributor of songs recorded on discs) replaced by record players and disc jokeys.

She herself was a DJ in 1955 at the Whiskey à Gogo, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Her first name has become "the emblem of crazy nights until dawn, herself dancing on the track until closing time", recalls the text of Pierre Palmade.

“When you can't dance, you can't make love!” she told AFP in 2015.

"La Nuit is an orphan, she has lost her Queen", tweeted singer Line Renaud, while English singer and DJ Boy George, member of the group Culture Club, paid tribute to "the legendary French diva".

"Six letters on a neon, a voice, a few musical notes hummed on everyone's lips and then the night: so was Régine", tweeted Prime Minister Jean Castex.

"We have crossed the century by your side, your sorrows and your joys merging with ours" affirmed the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, while the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, saluted the memory of "Queen of our sleepless nights" who "made his city vibrate like no one else".

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 ".

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.

Régine alongside Serge Gainsbourg on October 24, 1984 in Paris PIERRE GUILLAUD AFP / Archives

"+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 few roundups of Klaus Barbie”, continues the press release from Mr. Palmade.

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.

Singer and businesswoman Régine on August 30, 2013 in Deauville, France.

Charly TRIBALLEAU AFP/Archives

"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.

Tireless, she started a tour in 2015, at the age of 85, her first since 1969.

"Retirement? I'm absolutely in no hurry! I have a nice future until the day I'm eaten by my boa, like in my song, and life will stop!", She assured the AFP.

© 2022 AFP