B*Witched Bio: The Story Behind It All

"We are four girls who happen to be in a band together. We don't want to be one-dimensional. We don't want to be about one thing. We want to be about everything. We want B*Witched to be nothing less than a celebration of being alive."

B*Witched: Four multi-talented girls from Dublin, Ireland who are about to single-handedly breathe fresh life into the pop charts with the March 16, 1999 US release of their self-titled Epic debut album. B*Witched includes the group's smash singles "C'est La Vie," "Roller Coaster" and "To You I Belong" each of which entered at Number One on the UK chart. Only six other artists in UK chart history have scored three consecutive Number One singles, but only B*Witched has seen its hits debut at Number One.

Weeks before their US album release, B*Witched hit the American highway on a sold-out tour supporting 'N Sync. "We got really good cheers," a well-pleased Edele Lynch reported to Pollstar. "We were going on right before one of the biggest boy bands in the US, so we were a little bit nervous, actually, to see what reaction we got [from the fans]. But they were all standing up and dancing to the songs!" The group's roadwork paid off: By late February '99, "C'est La Vie" had cracked the Top 20 of the SoundScan Singles Sales chart and was climbing the Hot 100.

In its "B+" album review, Entertainment Weekly said: "It's hard to deny the music's appeal. B*Witched's pajama-party tunes, from 'Rev It Up' to 'Rollercoaster' are effortless jump-rope pop." And Request predicts that "the four teenage Irish lasses of B*Witched are poised to cast their collective spell stateside Brogues intact throughout, B*Witched proves its Irish-influenced brand of pure pop is no novelty"

Keavy Lynch describes the group's style as "Irish hip-hop/pop," combining irresistible pop hooks with traditional fiddles and flutes, and modern dance rhythms. "On the album," twin sister Edele told Pollstar, "there's pop music, a little bit of indie, a bit of rock, a little bit of drum 'n' bass, and then the Irish music runs through all of it. Everybody seems to like the Irish strain because it's quite uplifting in the up-tempo songs and in the slow songs, it's quite haunting and touching."

The roots of B*Witched lie in the love of music shared by Edele and Keavy Lynch (both born 12/15/79) from adolescence. "We come from a musical family, so there was always music around us when we were growing up," Edele explains. "Our granddad played the fiddle, so we never needed much of an excuse to dance and sing. From a really early age, we started making up our own songs and performing them."

"I suppose, at some point, it occurred to us that we might grow up to be performers," says Keavy. "But it seemed like a distant dream. Then, as we got older, it started looking more realistic. We thought, 'Yeah, we can do this.' It was at that point that things started falling into place."

Like the twins, Sinead O'Carroll (born 5/14/78) had been involved in music from a tender age: playing piano from the age of seven, going on to study dance and performance. One morning, she wandered into the Dublin garage where Keavy was working as a part-time mechanic...and soon the B*Witched lineup was three-quarters of the way towards their full coven.

Enter Lindsay Armaou (born 12/18/80), an accomplished musician who had first studied piano at age seven and guitar at thirteen. She met up with Keavy at a kick-boxing class, and shortly thereafter B*Witched were ready to cast their collective spell.

Inspired by the success of the twins' brother Shane, a member of hit UK group Boyzone, the four girls decamped to Sinead's Dublin flat where they buckled down to writing songs and singing into a cheap tape recorder. The foursome knew they were on to something when the neighbors started banging on the walls, asking them to turn the music up.

"Right from the start," Sinead recalls, "we just seemed to hit it off, both musically and socially. But we didn't want to hurry anything. We knew we had something good going, but we wanted to take our time with it."

Unlike many entrants in the current wave of teen-oriented groups, B*Witched is the creation of its four members. They didn't need a controlling Svengali or an entertainment conglomerate to bring their pop dreams to life. "We choreographed all our own routines and we bought all our own clothes," Lindsay recalls, "and that was for about five months." About two years ago, an Irish television crew visited the group's Dublin rehearsal space to film them for a documentary; two weeks later, B*Witched were invited to perform on the show.

The next step was joining forces their co-managers Kim Glover and Tommy Jay Smith. "What was there was very raw," Tommy later told Billboard, "but they had written their own songs and routines. They had styled themselves [and] they had huge ambition and drive."

With the sudden chart-topping success of "C'est La Vie," B*Witched took to the stage on major UK tours with Boyzone and 911, turning in the kind of high-energy performances that have left their audiences happily screaming for more. Right now, it looks like they've got the international pop world by the tail.

"We don't really think about limits," says Keavy Lynch. "We're just busy enjoying the ride at the moment. We totally believe in what we do. We totally believe in the power of pop music to raise people's spirits."

"And that's exactly what we intend to do: Raise people's spirits and make them feel more alive. If our music can do that, then we're achieving our ambition."

The B*Witched Story

'We're more interested in bringing joy into people's lives than becoming incredibly famous,' said B*Witched back in the spring of 1998. Almost two years later and the whole world has been jigging to their infectious Irish-influenced pop. And the girls are not only incredibly famous, they're superstars! Hailing from Dublin, B*Witched are twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Sinead O'Carroll and Lindsay Armaou. 'We come from a musical family,' say Edele and Keavy. 'Our granddad played the fiddle, so we never needed much of an excuse to dance and sing. From an early age, we performed our own songs. As we got older, our dream of becoming performers started looking more realistic.' A few simple twists of fate brought B*Witched together. Sinead played the piano from the age of seven and also studied dance and performance. One morning, she wandered into the Dublin garage where Keavy was a part-time mechanic and the two girls became instant friends. Lindsay, too, was an accomplished musician. She learned the piano at seven and the guitar at 13. She met up with Keavy at a kick-boxing class and, bingo, B*Witched were born! Inspired by the twins' brother Shane (a member of Boyzone), the girls moved into Sinead's flat where they started writing songs. Says Edele, 'All the stuff we write is based on our own experience, and we believe in enjoying life to the max!' An appearance on a documentary about the dance studios in which they rehearsed brought them to the attention of a manager. And it was only a matter of time till a record company was also won over by B*Witched's charms. Their first UK single, 'C'est La Vie' went into the UK charts at number one, making them the youngest girl group ever to do so. Soon breaking records became as natural as performing: their singles 'Rollercoaster', 'To You I Belong' and 'Blame It On The Weatherman' not only won them millions of fans across Europe, but also made them the first ever act to have their first four singles go straight in the charts at number one. Their debut album, 'B*Witched, went triple platinum in the UK and has sold 3 million copies worldwide. The girls have spent 1999 recording their second album and charming the States where 'C'est La Vie' went top ten and 'B*Witched' platinum. The girls have also completed two sell-out tours with N-Sync and 98°. 'We don't really think about limits,' says Keavy. 'We're just busy enjoying the ride at the moment. We totally believe in the power of pop music to raise people's spirits. If our music can do that, then we're achieving our ambition.' The B*Witched story continues with the release of their fifth single, 'Jesse Hold On'.

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