"C'est la Vie" is a song by Irish girl group B*Witched. It served as their debut single and the lead single from their self-titled debut studio album. Written by band members Edele Lynch, Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou, and Sinéad O'Carroll, Ray "Madman" Hedges, Martin Brannigan and Tracy Ackerman, it was released by Epic Records on 25 May 1998. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the song was a huge success for the band after it reached number one on the charts in various countries around the world, including the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand. In the process, B*Witched became the youngest girl group ever to have a UK number one. In the United States, "C'est la Vie" reached number nine on the BillboardHot 100. In 1999, it was nominated for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically" in the Ivor Novello Awards. The accompanying music video for the song features the four girls dancing around a lush green field full of bright flowers with a puppy as they playfully tease a teenage boy. "C'est la Vie" has been featured in numerous films and television shows since its release in 1998, including Smart House, Daria, What Women Want, and Life-Size.
Background and release
"C'est la Vie" was written by B*Witched members Edele Lynch, Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou, and Sinéad O'Carroll, Ray "Madman" Hedges, Martin Brannigan, and Tracy Ackerman. The song features many cheeky double entendres, the band commenting in 2013 "it went over children's heads, but the parents got the innuendos. It was perfect for everyone."
Critical reception
In 1999, the song was nominated for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically" at the Ivor Novello Awards. Billboard named the song #97 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.
Chart performance
"C'est la Vie" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 31 May 1998 and remained at the top the following week. It also went to number one in the group's home country of Ireland, as well as in New Zealand. The song went to number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 in the week of 17 April 1999 and number six on the Australian ARIA Charts. It went Platinum in Australia for sales of over 70,000 copies. By September 2017, over 927,000 copies of the single had been sold in the UK.
Music video
The music video for the song was directed by Alison Murray, who later also directed the UK video for "Rollercoaster". It begins with the four girls lying on the ground in a field of daisies on a sunny day. A dog is introduced into the clip next to one of the girls and the quartet then begin dancing and singing to a teenage boy in a treehouse. The girls then tie the boy to a tree and the dog chases toward him before he is magically bombarded with lipstick kiss marks all over his face. The boy is freed from the tree and the girls hose him with water and begin performing an Irish reel before lying back down in the field where they began. In 2013, the group revealed that the song was really about sex. Keavy Lynch also revealed that Murray initially wanted Sinéad O'Carroll to look down her own jeans as she sang the line "I'll show you mine if you show me yours", but that this request was stopped rather quickly by the group's management.
Credits and personnel
Tracy Ackerman – writing
Lindsay Armaou – writing, backing vocals
Martin Brannigan – writing
Ray "Madman" Hedges – writing, production, arrangement
