Regine, a French vocalist, has died

Regine, a French singer and actress who claimed to have invented the contemporary discotheque and once owned a nightclub empire stretching from Paris to Los Angeles, died on Sunday at the age of 92, according to her grand-daughter.

Regine, born Regina Zylberberg in Belgium, founded her first club in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1950s, replacing the jukebox with turntables and disc jockeys, which were common in dance venues at the time.

She frequently claimed that the new format validated her claim to “discotheque creation.”

“If you can’t dance, you can’t make love,” she famously declared.

The new discos were a hit with the jet set, and Regine, dubbed the “queen of the night,” went on to create numerous other clubs, including “Regine’s” in New York in the 1970s, as well as others in Miami, Rio de Janeiro, and Los Angeles.

“Regine passed away quietly on May 1 at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT),” her grand-daughter Daphne Rotcajg stated.

She has appeared in films directed by Claude Lelouch and Claude Zidi, among others.