Régine

Régine Zylberberg (born Régina Zylberberg; 26 December 1929 – 1 May 2022), often known mononymously as Régine, was a Belgian-born French singer, actress, nightclub impresario, and businesswoman.

Rising to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, she built an international nightlife empire with her chain of Régine’s clubs, which became synonymous with celebrity culture, luxury, and the emerging jet set. Often called the "Queen of the Night," Regine is credited with pioneering the modern discotheque while maintaining a parallel career as a recording artist and entertainer.

Rachelle Zylberberg was born in Anderlecht, Belgium, to Polish Jewish parents, Joseph Zylberberg and Tauba Rodstein. She spent much of her early life in hiding from the Nazis in occupied wartime France. Abandoned in infancy by her unwed mother who moved to Argentina, she was 12 when her father was arrested by the Nazis. She hid in a convent, where she was reportedly beaten. After the war, she sold bras in the streets of Paris. Her father, Joseph, managed to survive the war. He opened a cafe in Paris's Belleville neighborhood.

Zylberberg had one son, Lionel, from her first husband Leon Rothcage, whom she married when she was 17.

Known as Régine, she became a torch singer; by 1953, she was a nightclub manager in Paris. She is attributed with the invention of the modern-day discothèque, by virtue of creating a new dynamic atmosphere at Paris' Whisky à Gogo, with the ubiquitous jukebox replaced by disc jockeys utilizing linked turntables. Zylberberg's Paris Whisky à Gogo became the inspiration for the later establishment of the Whisky a Go Go nightclub in Los Angeles.