This week, we sat down and chatted with Lindsay Armaou, one quarter of the phenomenal Irish girl group B*Witched.
Fresh off the back of supporting Boyzone at the Emirates Stadium for the band’s farewell gigs, in this exclusive chat with Zingo Bingo Lindsay tells us about the gigs and recounts the incredible success of breakthrough single and certified pop banger C’est La Vie.
It's not that long ago that you and the rest of B*Witched were supporting Boyzone the Emirates. It was a big thing to be part of. What was it like to be part of Boyzone's big farewell?
Oh, it was so amazing on so many levels. To be part of their last couple of shows was so very poignant because we supported them at the very, very beginning of our career, which were our first sort of big shows, if you like, over in Ireland, I think it was Belfast we did with them.
It feels like a full circle moment almost for us. It's like, wow, because we were there with them at the very beginning of our career and then we were there on stage kind at the end of theirs.
It was really lovely. And of course, Keavy and Edele are Shane Lynch’s sisters. So, it was quite a family moment for them as well.
Have you ever played at a stadium the size of the Emirates before?
No!! It was just that amazing thing of we're playing a stadium (shocked). I mean, who would have thought almost 30 years later we'd be standing in front of a stadium full of people? And that was incredible. It was a really incredible moment for me and the entire band.
It’s a perfect time for reflection almost 30 years on from breaking through as superstars in your own right. It must have been a bit of a whirlwind.
It was (a whirlwind). But also, it was a strange one because it was a slow burner for quite what felt like quite a while. I mean, we were just so geared up and ready to hit the ground running. We had our record deal. We had a producer on board. We had a manager on board. And we were kind of doing all the groundwork.
For about a year we were doing loads of school assemblies in the mornings and then whatever town we were in, we would do the under 18s nightclub that night, get up, and go and do it all over again. We would be up and down the country (Ireland) and then in each town we'd do the local radio station, we'd go and visit them and do an interview. So we really did put the groundwork in. And then what happened was when we recorded C’est La Vie, the record company just went crazy. They were just like, this is it! This is the first single. We're ready to go now. All systems go. And from that moment, it was like everything just went up like 5 gears.
C’est La Vie was released in the May of 98 and the rest, as they say, is history.
And at the time, of course, with there not being any social media, you didn't really have that immediate feedback. You didn't really know how it would do; it was hard to gauge it. The only way we could gauge it was from the midweek chart position. On a Wednesday, you would get a midweek chart position, which gave you an indication as to how the single was doing.
We did know that the video was being played constantly on MTV and On the Box (another music TV channel) at the time. So, we did know that there were some sort of interest and radio had started to pick up on it. But when we got that midweek on Wednesday, we were just blown away. We were at number one on the Wednesday.
It was just a really, really surreal moment where you thought, am I dreaming? Am I actually dreaming? What do you mean we're at number one? That just makes no sense. Like we were hoping for a top 10 or even a top 20, to be honest, as a first single.
But C’est La Vie really took on a life of its own. It surpassed all our expectations. It really, really did. And then of course it did make it to #1 by the Sunday. You know, all the kids went out and bought it on the Saturday from HMV and Woolworths and all the rest. We were just firmly in that top position by a mile. It was incredible.
You've been back in your second iteration since 2012 now. It's been a longer time period since your initial time. Is that strange or have you been enjoying it more even?
Yeah, it really makes me laugh. It really does make me laugh to think that we've been together an absolute age now, this time compared to the first time around.
What’s different about being in B*Witched now?
We enjoy different aspects of it, but what is brilliant is that everything that we do as a band and as a brand, is very much on our terms now. We have more control of what we do, how we do it, and how much time we put into it. We're all mums. So, we do have to work around our families a lot as well.
We just love the stage work. We love going out and doing shows and gigs and being creative. And then every now and again, we'll go back in the studio and we'll record some new material as well. And that keeps things fresh for us as well. It's also great for the fans to see that we're still creating. And every now and again, they'll get a surprise new song, and it keeps them happy as well.
It's really important to balance all those different aspects of the job. But I guess we just feel very blessed and very lucky that we're still here doing the thing that we love to do.
How does the success you have now compare to those heady times of ’98?
Back in the day, it was a different level. It was crazy. We had a huge record company behind us and we were working from dawn till dusk; 14 - 16 hour days and travelling from one country to another. One day here and the next day there, and sometimes two or three countries in one day. It was very, very full on at the time.
We were advised to ride the wave, and we really did. We worked really, really hard. In some ways, I think because of that, we're still able to do this today, you know. I feel very blessed.
How strange is it that it's nearly 30 years since C'est La Vie was a massive number one?
I don't like to think how long ago it was (laughs). It's crazy that people still love the song and still want to hear it. When we perform it live, it is incredible the reaction that it still gets.
When that song comes on, we do it at the end, the energy just shifts in the venue. Everyone's energy just goes up about 10 notches. They just love it. And we love playing it because of the reaction that it gets. And it's just a real, it's a real moment.
What does the future hold for B*Witched? Can we expect more new music that we can enjoy? Of course. We've got a new single out at the moment. It's called Firefly and it's available on Spotify and Apple Music. We did a video as well for it. We shot a video and that's available to see on our YouTube channel. You can go onto our website and there's lots of things that you can sign up for there as well. There's lots of things going on. And then of course we do our shows and our festivals and we do headline shows at cathedrals around the the UK. And we come over to Ireland as well. We do quite a lot of festivals there. I think we're over in Belfast in a couple of weeks actually. But yeah, we just keep going and we just keep enjoying it and enjoying each other as well.
Not content with being a quarter of one of the most successful girl groups of all time, you’re also an actor. Tell us a bit about that.
I've kind of been dipping in and out of it for the last few years. The odd role will come up and I'll kind of dive into that. I think things have been quite busy with B*Witched recently, so there hasn't been as much availability for me to be involved in acting, but I would love to pick that up again and do a few more really, really interesting and juicy roles.
The last one I did was The Bombing of Pam Am on Netflix and BBC, which was an amazing experience. I got to do a really intense scene with Patrick Adams from Suits. He was amazing to work with. And it was a really, really great experience, actually.
It was a scene where I'm one of the parents of one of the young women who got killed on the plane. And she's very emotional and she's challenging him (Patrick Adams) in a press conference scenario. It was a great, great experience. But yeah, I'd love to get my teeth into some more acting. Definitely.
C’est La Vie by the numbers
- C'est La Vie burnt a bright trail up to the top of the UK Official Singles Chart in 1998; the much-hyped track sold 895,000 copies
- UK Sales: Surpassed 1.5 million total sales.
- Chart Peak: Reached Number 1 in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand
- US Success: Reached Number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
- Australia: Certified Platinum with over 70,000 sales
- 65m+ streams
B*Witched
C'est La Vie would by no means be the last Number 1 for B*Witched, in fact it would be the first of four Number 1s, including Rollercoaster, To You I Belong and Blame It On The Weatherman, all of which were claimed consecutively.
B*Witched are a hugely successful Irish girl group who were originally active between 1998 and 2002. They enjoyed success in the UK, throughout Europe and North America, releasing two albums and eight singles, all of which made the UK Top 20 including four singles which topped the UK charts, securing them a place in the Record Books!
The original lineup, comprised of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Sinéad O'Carroll and Lindsay Armaou. The group went on to sell a remarkable 6 million records worldwide, touring the States with N*Sync and Britney Spears. In 2002 the band split. Then in 2013 the original members of B*Witched reunited for the hit ITV2 series, The Big Reunion, along with other pop super groups of their time which defined the late 90s pop era, including Liberty X, Five, Atomic Kitten, and Blue. They embarked on 2 sell out arena tours that year playing to a combined audience of 250,000, and have since been busy recording, and playing live across the world!
