B*Witched: Celtic Spicettes Jump the Pond

When a little pop confection called "Blame It On the Weatherman" debuted at the top of the U.K. charts last week, the teen girls in B*Witched secured their place in music history. |

Introduced to the U.K. last summer, this Dublin-based, tank top-clad four-piece has become the first act in U.K. history to have their first four singles enter the charts at number one -- a feat unmatched by the Spice Girls, All Saints, Oasis and the Beatles. In addition, the Celtic flavored "C'est La Vie" this week jumped from No. 43 to No. 25 on the U.S. singles chart.

"It's just been completely overwhelming, everything," says Sinead O'Carroll, who at age twenty is the oldest member of the quartet. "It hasn't even been a year and things have been going brilliantly." Indeed. When "C'est La Vie" debuted on the British charts last summer, the sub-three-minute took over the charts, airways and shopping malls from Galway to Great Yarmouth, finally landing at the No. 5 spot on 1998's year-end singles chart.

"A lot of people thought we were a one-hit wonder and, you know, a lot of other pop bands and people within the industry were saying that we were -- our music was -- just like a shame to pop music," O'Carroll says.

But the girls ignored the pressure and hit the studio with producer Ray Hedges (Boyzone, Take That), where they co-wrote nine of the twelve tracks on their self-titled debut. It was there that they procured their distinctive blend of charming, Celtic-influenced pop that won over the hearts of the record buying public -- and critics who wanted to pin them as Irish Spices.

"Our music is completely different [from the Spice Girls]," O'Carroll says. "I mean, it's still pop music, but there's a lot of Irish music in it and when people hear it they kind of go, 'Oh, that's B*Witched,' because of that significant difference. And we all dress completely different as well. So we've never really been compared, because our image is different, our music is different. The only thing that isn't is that we're girls and we're in the pop industry."

No cattle calls for fresh young faces or talent searches brought the B*witched girls to the limelight. The four met courtesy of a Dublin dance studio they studied in, but it wasn't until Sinead had to take her mother's car into the auto shop where nineteen-year-old Keavy Lynch worked that forming a band began in earnest. Keavy brought in twin sister Edele and kickboxing classmate Lindsay Armaou, an eighteen year-old with a particular yen for guitar, and B*Witched was formed.

"The four of us never had any preconceived ideas that it would be kind of glitz and glam, 'cause that's all we knew. We used to go into the studio ourselves, like, for hours after work -- Lindsay was still in school at the time -- and we'd meet at seven o'clock. We'd train 'til about ten, go home, get up for work, do the same thing for months and months," O'Carroll emphasizes. "It was full-on ever since we decided that we were gonna be a band, and we never thought it was gonna be any different."

When they're not out touring their hearts out, the four girls live together in London where they "have many girlie nights doing face masks and doing each others nails," O'Carroll says. But it's when they're performing that B*Witched have the most fun.

"All we're about is just to be on stage," O'Carroll says. "To see kids out there that are, like, having a good time, that's the best thing. You know, for us to look out and to see them smile."

JOLIE LASH(March 24, 1999)