A Catch Up With B*Witched More Than 25 Years After “C’est La Vie”
More than ever, B*Witched are ready to huff and puff and blow fans away.
Because nearly three decades after what Keavy Lynch refers to as their “gobsmacking” rise to the top of the music charts with their debut song “C’est La Vie,” the Irish girl group has been on a long journey—through fame, a decade-long break from the spotlight and finally, a return with new music.
Still, looking back at their 1998 beginnings remains a surreal experience.
“We were in Italy thinking, ‘Hopefully we’ll have a top 20’ and we kind of felt like that right up until the midweek,” Keavy, 45, recalled in an exclusive interview with E! News alongside twin sister Edele Lynch, Sinéad O’Carroll, and Lindsay Armaou, “and our producer said, like ‘You’re number one.’ And we were like, ‘Ha, that’s hilarious. Where are we really?’ He was like, ‘No, you’re number one.’”
Less than a year later and they were touring with the then-just breaking out *NSYNC.
“They weren’t big in the U.K. at the time, so our manager was like, ‘You’re going on tour with a really big American boy band,’ and we were like, ‘It’s the Backstreet Boys!’” Edele, 45, explained, before sharing their initial reaction to learning the group they were supporting was actually *NSYNC. “We had to look them up, which is kind of ridiculous, because they were insanely huge in the U.S.A.—and they’re amazing.”
During that time, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick helped the Irish girl group celebrate some big wins, like when their single “Blame it on the Weatherman” topped the U.K. charts in 1999. (B*Witched set a then-record when all four singles off their 1998 self-titled debut reached that benchmark.)
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“I think they got us a cake,” Sinéad, 52, noted, with Lindsay, 46, remembering that the band “decorated our whole dressing room and got us cake, balloons.”
And their music was seemingly everywhere, appearing in the Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House—which they still get messages about—What Women Want, Dawson’s Creek and The Princess Diaries to name a few.
But by 2002, three years after their second album Awake and Breathe released, the group took a break from the music and parted ways.
“At first it was crazy, because there were so many years our schedule was laid out for us,” Edele explained. “We knew what time we were getting up, we knew what time we needed to eat, we knew what time we had to go to bed to get up early the next day. So I think for me, the weirdest thing was just making those choices for myself.”
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But beyond navigating the mundanity of those first solo trips to the supermarkets, the bandmates also looked ahead at their next chapter. “I went back to college, studied some fitness,” Edele recounted, “got married, had three children. So, it was a different life in that time—it was a nice life too.”
It proved to be a necessary break too—ultimately giving them the space they needed apart to be able to come back together a decade later.
“We were so young when we got into the band, so we were kind of catapulted into that bubble,” Lindsay said, “and I think when we came out of it, it was a time of discovery for each of us. We all went on our different little journeys, and then miraculously 10 years later, our paths joined again, and we had this opportunity to reunite, and we took it. And the rest is history—We’re still here!”
Although, getting back together wasn’t an immediate yes when the B*Witched members were first approached to appear on the 2013 ITV docuseries The Big Reunion alongside fellow late ‘90s boy bands and girl groups like Atomic Kitten, Blue and Five.
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“I think for eight months, I was like, ‘Nope!’ I was in college at the time, studying counselling,” Keavy noted. “And so when they came knocking, I was like, ‘No, I’ve integrated myself back into life, and I’ve made a new decision, and I don’t want that disrupted in any way.’”
Plus, now they had families of their own to contend with.
“I had had the kids, and I didn’t know if I wanted to bring that kind of attention to the children’s doorstep,” Edele told E!. “I was like, ‘I’m really not sure about it at all.’ Just being out of the limelight for so long—and you always want to protect the little ones.”
But while Lindsay, Keavy and Edele had embarked on second careers, for Sinéad a reunion was more of an inevitability than just a hope.
“I always had a feeling that we would come back together,” she admitted, adding they had “unfinished business.”
“So I was just like, ‘No, this is the perfect opportunity,’” Sinéad explained, “‘to do that.’”
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Beyond the show following them and their contemporaries rehearsing and performing for the first time in a decade, it ultimately jumpstarted B*Witched’s second chapter—while allowing them to appreciate what they were able to achieve the first time around.
“I’m still quite happy to sing ‘C’est La Vie,’” Keavy revealed, “because it’s an electric moment—it really is. There are so many ups in that song, from the guitar riff right at the start, and then the music in the middle, and the chorus, like, it just keeps extending, and the energy and the hysteria reaction just keeps growing.”
To which Lindsay chimed in, “It’s amazing how it stood the test of time—like, it was a pop song in the ‘90s and now, all this time later, it’s still played, it’s still appreciated, it’s still enjoyed. That’s something that we could never have known back then.”
Although in many ways their biggest track is, as Sinéad put it, “the song that keeps on giving,” there was a time where Edele was ready to put it behind her.
“I fell out with it for a bit,” she admitted. “I was like, ‘I’m really sick of singing this.’ And then I did a stage theater show. And the cast did it, but I didn’t—which was really an unusual choice—but I got to kind of sit at that point and see it from the audience perspective. Then I understood it from a different viewpoint, so I’ve come back on board.”
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These days, they’re revisiting their hits playing festivals across the U.K. and Ireland—with a hope to return to the States soon—as well as new music off their 2024 EP Ripped Jeans, which marked their first new music in a decade.
“It was really to give back to the people who followed us for so long and just want a bit of something,” Keavy shared. “But it also allows us to freshen up our set and feel a bit more excited about what we’re doing as well, so we can continue giving as best as we can—so it doesn’t get jaded for us.”
And while they’re still releasing catchy tracks like new single “Multiply” and “So Into You,” these days they’re doing it with a different perspective.
“I remember the old days really fondly, and we had an incredible time,” Sinéad explained, “but there was a huge amount of pressure that came with that. Now there is no pressure. We don’t put any on ourselves—if anyone else tried to, we don’t even hear it anymore. We’re having fun, the audiences are having fun, and that’s really all it’s about.”
B*Witched isn’t the only group to capture fans’ hearts over the years. Keep reading for a look back at more iconic girl boy bands and girl groups…
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Backstreet Boys
Backstreet’s back, alright! The Backstreet Boys released their first album in 1996, and redefined the turn of the century with 1999 record Millennium. Thankfully, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson are still touring and belting our favorite hits over two decades later.
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Destiny’s Child
All hail the girl group that gave us Beyoncé! Don’t “Bug a Boo” when it comes to Destiny’s Child because Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams are still icons in their own right to this day as well.
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‘NSYNC
Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick made up the iconic boy band group, ‘NSYNC. We’re still holding out for another reunion performance, and we promise, no strings attached because we aren’t ready to say “Bye, Bye, Bye” just yet.
Spice Girls
If you wanna be their lover, you’ve gotta get with their friends…and they sure have a lot! The Spice Girls rocked the U.K. with their ’90s fashion and catchy lyrics. Mel C, Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Geri Halliwell and Emma Bunton were the Brit girl group of our dreams.
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Hanson
Far out, man. The Hanson brothers joined the ranks of fellow ’90s boy bands with hit song, “MMMBop.” Hanson released an album together in 2013 before brothers Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson and Zac Hanson went their separate ways for solo careers—and in Taylor’s case, raising seven kids! Thankfully, our favorite bros reunited in 2018 for album String Theory and have continued touring since then.
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TLC
Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas still make up ’90s rap group TLC, after original member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes tragically died in 2002. Lil Mama performed with TLC in 2013, before the “Waterfalls” singers announced their new album in 2017.
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BTS
Since 2017, Korean boy band BTS has been writing, producing and performing most of their songs as international superstars. The K-pop groups loyal Army of fans are some of the most passionate in music history.
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B*Witched
For nearly four years, Keavy Lynch, Edele Lynch, Sinéad O’Carroll, and Lindsay Armaou were all over the airwaves with 1998 breakout hits like “C’est La Vie” and “Blame it on the Weatherman”—songs featured in everything from Smart House to Dawson’s Creek. But in 2002, they parted ways after two albums… that is until reforming for 2013’s The Big Reunion. And reunite they did as they’ve continued touring and even releasing new music, like EP Ripped Jeans in 2024.
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98 Degrees
Yep, Nick Lachey was in a boy band and we’re burning up way past 98 Degrees just thinking about it. Joined by Drew Lachey and Justin Jeffre, music producers Lachey and Jeff Timmons formed the group after leaving college to pursue music careers in the ’90s.
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New Kids On the Block
New Kids On the Block skyrocketed to fame in the late 1980s and the group reunited in 2011 for a throwback tour with The Backstreet Boys.
Original NKOTB members were brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood. The group broke up in 1994 but then reunited several years later and went on tour with the Backstreet Boys in 2011. Not surprisingly, that tour announcement pretty much broke the Internet. They are still performing today.
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The Jonas Brothers
Thank god the JoBros are back! The Jonas Brothers gave us Nick Jonas‘ sweet smile, Joe Jonas‘ swagger and Kevin Jonas‘ big brother charisma. Oh, did we mention they can all sing and play instruments too? Excuse us while we’re still swooning over these A-listers since their band debuted in 2006.
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One Direction
One of the best bands to ever come out of a singing competition series, One Direction took over the planet in the 2010s. And, the boy band has birthed plenty of successful solo careers, with Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and the late Liam Payne all solidifying their place in music (and fashion and film) history.
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Little Mix
The X Factor-formed group are princesses of pop and sing about body positivity, feminism, the pressures of social media and juggling it all as young moms.
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BLACKPINK
Lisa, Rosé, Jennie and Jisoo make up K-pop group BLACKPINK, who released their first album—aptly titled, THE ALBUM—in October 2020. “BLACKPINK is—we kind of felt like there’s two colors that represented us the most ‘cause we’re very girly but at the same time we’re very savage too,” Rosé explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live at the time. “We have a song called ‘Pretty Savage’ and it kind of goes with ‘black pink’ and so we thought it described us the best.”
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Fifth Harmony
Before the world experienced “Work From Home” life due to the coronavirus pandemic, Fifth Harmony gave fans an upbeat (and sexy) anthem to any WFH woes. Breakout singer Camila Cabello went on to have a successful solo career—including even playing Cinderella!—after the girl group went on hiatus in 2018 and other members have also released solo projects.
Five Seconds of Summer
Australian rockers 5 Seconds of Summer first started on YouTube before singles “She Looks So Perfect” and “Girls Talk Boys” got radio play. Eventually 5SOS opened on tour for One Direction, and the rest is history.
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Boyz II Men
Still performing as a trio, Boyz II Men‘s Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanya Morris have been rocking the charts with hits like “I’ll Make Love to You” and “One Sweet Day” for over 30 years.
The Wanted
The bad boy counterpart to One Direction, U.K.-based The Wanted hit it big stateside with 2012 banger “Glad You Came,” before starring in their own E! reality series, The Wanted Life. The group went on hiatus in 2014 before reuniting in 2021, but sadly, founding member Tom Parker died of brain cancer the following year.
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CNCO
CNCO formed in 2016 with members Joel Pimentel, Richard Camacho, Erick Brian Colón, Christopher Vélez and Zabdiel De Jesús but gave their last performance as a five-some on May 14 after Pimental announced he was exiting the group.
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Big Time Rush
From Nickelodeon to national tours, Big Time Rush rocked hard for five years before parting ways in 2014. Good thing all four members—Kendall Schmidt, Logan Henderson, Carlos PenaVega and James Maslow—reunited for two new shows in Dec. 2021.
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Girls Aloud
British pop group Girls Aloud made history as one of the first bands formed from a reality competition series. The year was 2002, the show was Popstars: The Rivals and the powerhouse vocalists were Sarah Harding, Cheryl (then known as Cheryl Cole), Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. Girls Aloud recorded 20 consecutive top 10 singles and four number ones, including “Sound of the Underground,” during their reign.
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