The Story of Pop: 1998 (Chapter 22)

Selecting up more huge hits from the UK charts of 25 years ago, this is The Story of Pop: 1998. This week: time to get down from your treehouse sitting in the sky, for our first hugely successful encounter with a denim clad Irish girl group…

• Artist: B*Witched
• Song: C’est La Vie
• Released: 25/05/1998
• Writers / Producers: B*Witched / Ray “Madman” Hedges / Martin Brannigan / Tracy Ackerman
• Highest UK Chart Position: #1
• Weeks on Chart: 19

Whilst the UK had Cool Britannia and Britpop, across the water, Ireland had the Celtic Tiger. Kick-started by the success of Riverdance in 1994, and at one time winning Eurovision almost every year, suddenly the Emerald Isle was experiencing something of a renaissance, culturally, economically and socially. Ireland was becoming cool and sexy, and a source of endless fascination and interest around the globe.

1998 was undoubtedly a high point of a period that would last well into the mid 00s. It was the historic year when the Good Friday Agreement ended three decades of sectarian conflict with the Troubles. Channel 4’s sitcom Father Ted was one of the most popular on the box, Michael Flatley’s show stopping Lord Of The Dance was packing out arenas, and in music, plenty of Irish acts were experiencing success, many of whom we’ll be meeting later on in this series.

But in terms of the UK singles chart, there were four girls from Dublin who we’ll be meeting and discussing no less than three times over the course of the series to come, ultimately going onto outsell both the Spice Girls and All Saints in this year. But the story really begins with – surprisingly – Boyzone.

As we’ll discuss a bit later on this series, they really were the biggest boyband of that moment. But their tattooed and pierced wildcard, Shane Lynch, had some more siblings, specifically, his twin sisters, Edele and Keavy Lynch, who were about to take over pop. Both were in training with singing and dancing rehearsals at the famous Digges Lane dance studio in Dublin, whilst Keavy was also following in her big brother’s footsteps, working as a tyre fitter at her dad’s garage during the day.

They gained a mutual friend, Sinead O’Carroll, a trained ballet and jazz dancer six years their senior, and started writing songs and making up dance routines together, with a view to becoming Ireland’s first all female hip hop pop act. But they needed another member to make it work, and it was through mutual friends that they ended up auditioning part Greek singer songwriter, Lindsay Armaou.

A chance visit to Digges Lane by a local TV company who were there to make a short film on the dance studios saw the now four piece girl group – then called D-Zire – get featured on telly again the following week performing their own original song, “A Shoulder To Cry On”. This performance then caught the attention of Kim Glover, who had previously managed New Kids On The Block and Ant and Dec in their post-Byker Grove pop duo, PJ & Duncan, who they signed up with as their manager.

A few more changes of name, to Sassy and Sister followed, before they were signed on a development deal to Glowworm, an offshoot of Epic Records run by Surrey based record producer, and the mastermind of many of Boyzone and Take That’s early hits, Ray “Madman” Hedges.

He had been reluctant to work with a girl group, but said that he was bewitched by them – and so B*Witched was born. And it was around about this time that two key developments happened that transformed them into what they became. Firstly came the decision to play up to their tomboy image, and in Edele’s words “make it look really cool”, as they all embraced wearing double denim for their performances.

And then came the song which immediately saw them promoted from their development deal to a full blown record deal with bells, whistles and well, a fiddle on. Written by all the band with Ray, Martin Brannigan and Tracey Ackerman, “C’est La Vie” was described in an early Music Week preview as being a cross between Aqua and Chumbawamba.

Sonically there’s definitely a meeting point of say, “Tubthumping” and “Barbie Girl” here. But this breathless, day glo sunshine bright pop stormer also utilised not only a choice set of spoken interludes (‘Some people say I look like me da – What are you serious?’) but a quirky set of lyrics that referenced pretend play (‘I’ve got a house with a windows and doors / I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’) and even The Three Little Pigs (‘I’m the wolf today, hey hey hey / I’ll huff, I’ll puff / I’ll huff I’ll puff, I’ll blow you away’) in what was years later revealed to be mild innuendo.

And that’s all before the naggingly catchy chorus (‘Say you will, say you won’t / Say you’ll do what I don’t / Say you’re true, say to me / C’est la vie’) which then gives way to an Irish jig interlude that reminded you of exactly where these girls are from (even if, by their own admission, Lindsay in particular, they could just about do a reel).

Originally mooted for release in February, the girls put in the groundwork promoting the single over a schools tour and an under 18s nightclub tour up and down the UK. Just a month before the single finally hit the shops, it’s wildflower meadow set promo video was the most requested video on The Box, the very same cable music channel that had been responsible for breaking the Spice Girls a couple of years previously.

So when “C’est La Vie” did finally come to be released on 25th May 1998, demand was pent up – although the girls were oblivious to it. Speaking in 2013, Keavy said “We were incredibly shocked. We were hoping for a top 20, just so we could grow our fan base organically, so we were like ‘Yeah, top 20 would be grand’.”

Lindsay however remembered the phone call to their producer and MD Ray’s office when the midweek chart came through. Speaking for a BBC Top of the Pops documentary last year in 2022, she said “We were trying to gauge what he was hearing. And he had a complete poker face, he wasn’t giving anything away. He was just all, ‘Yeah, OK, mmhmm, OK’, then he put the phone down and he went ‘We’re number one!'”

For despite stiff competition from both the record we’ll discuss next week and “The Boy Is Mine”, the huge US Billboard chart topper from R&B stars Brandy and Monica, “C’est La Vie” crashed in from nowhere and straight to the top of the charts. Selling 153,000 copies in its first week on sale, it also set a few records.

At the time, they became the youngest girl group ever to get to number one, and also became the first to debut straight in at the top on their first week in the charts – something not even the Spice Girls or All Saints could lay claim to. It then stayed at number one for a second week, and overall spent nine of its nineteen weeks on the chart inside the top 10, finishing up as the fifth biggest selling single of 1998. We will be meeting B*Witched again later on in the series, but it’s safe to say the phenomenal and unexpected success of “C’est La Vie” was undoubtedly the catalyst that meant 1998 would go onto well and truly be their year.

Don’t forget to follow our brand new playlist on Spotify – updated weekly so you never miss a song from the story of pop in 1998. And you can leave your memories of the songs below in the comments, Tweet us or message us on Instagram, using the hashtag #StoryofPop1998.