Pop
B*Witched star Lindsay Armaou reveals pinch me moment with music legend on Top of the Pops
B*Witched's Lindsay Armaou has revealed to Contact Music just what it was like to be on Top of the Pops in the '90s and the music megastar who gave her and her bandmates some invaluable words of wisdom.
B*Witched star Lindsay Armaou has revealed what it was really like backstage on Top of the Pops - and she'll never forget one encounter with a music legend.
The Irish girl group were one of the biggest pop acts in the UK and Ireland in the late '90s, and they scored a mega Number One hit with their debut single C'est la Vie, which was released in May 1998.
Lindsay, 47, and her three bandmates - sisters Edele Lynch and Keavy Lynch and Sinéad O'Carroll - were just in their late teens and early 20s when the song went stratospheric, and after claiming the Number One spot on the UK Singles Chart, they were asked to perform on BBC One's flagship music show Top of the Pops.
During their very first time on Top of the Pops, the girls all came face-to-face with their musical idol Celine Dion, who dominated the charts with singles like It's All Coming Back to Me Now and My Heart Will Go On during the '90s.
Celine Dion at the Grammys in 1996
Lindsay has revealed that Celine gave the quartet some invaluable words of wisdom that have stuck with her ever since.
Speaking to Contact Music, she recalled: "On that very first Top of the Pops we did, when we were backstage we met Celine Dion and the Bee Gees - it was just incredible! They were so down to earth. We saw them in the corridor and they came up to us and they were like, ‘Oh, we love your song, well done.’ And Celine was like, ‘You girls stick together. That's the most important thing. You stick together.’ And I'll never forget that, I'm getting goosebumps even thinking about it. It was incredible. Those little interactions with people that you looked up, to and here they were giving you little nuggets of advice. It was so cool."
Lindsay remembers that all four members of B*Witched were living together in a house in London when they first topped the chart, and they all sat down to watch their pre-recorded performance of C'est la Vie when Top of the Pops aired on the Friday night.
B*Witched at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 1998
Even though they all knew that they were Number One, it was still a pinch-me moment for the group.
Lindsay - who was speaking on behalf of online bingo site Zingo Bingo, which offers retro, nostalgic and music-themed bingo rooms - said: "You know, it makes me quite sad to think that the likes of Top of the Pops and CD:UK, all those shows that your favourite bands used to pop up on, are not around anymore for this generation. I feel like they don't know what they're missing, to be honest.
"The very first time we were on Top of the Pops - what a surreal thing. We'd grown up watching Top of the Pops and here we were. It was pre-recorded the day before so on the Friday evening we sat down in our little living room, we were all living together in the outskirts of London at the time, in this little house, and we sat down to watch Top of the Pops, knowing that we were going to be the last ones on because we were Number One. We were fully aware that we'd recorded it the day before but it still felt like it wasn't real. Then just watching the whole thing and then at the end the presenter says, ‘At Number One on Top of the Pops it's B*Witched with C’est la Vie!’ We were just like, actually, pinch me, this is actually happening.. It was a real highlight, a real moment in time for us. And there were many more after that as well.
"With C’est la Vie we did Top of the Pops three or four times because it stayed at Number One and then it went down, I think, and it came back up to Number One so we were on Top of the Pops quite a few times just with that single, and then the next few singles as well. There were so many other things that feel like real highlights as well, like we did The Royal Variety Show and the BRITs and just so many things."
B*Witched are still touring now and recently released a new single, Firefly.
In the summer, the Blame It on the Weatherman hitmakers played their first-ever stadium shows when they supported Boyzone at their two farewell concerts at the Emirates Stadium in London.
Lindsay admits it was another special moment for B*Witched, especially as they had previously supported Boyzone on tour decades ago and Edele and Keavy are the sisters of Boyzone star Shane Lynch.”
B*Witched performing at the Might Hoopla Festival in London in 2024
Speaking about the shows, she said: "It was incredible. It really was.
"It was a moment in time, I think on so many levels. We'd never done a stadium before, so for us it was just such a lovely opportunity. We couldn't believe that, sort of 30 years on from C'est la Vie being released, we were here doing a stadium in front of 60,000 people.cd
The fact that it was with Boyzone as well kind of felt quite poignant because we supported them at the beginning of our career on their arena tour, so it was kind of like a full circle moment and here we were supporting them again at the end of their career. It's a family affair as well because Keavy and Edele are Shane’s sisters. Even backstage, it was a real family affair. All their family were over, all our families were over, so it was quite a moment in time for everyone."
