Written by Cabrel and Roger Secco with a music composed by Michel Françoise, it was the second single from his seventh studio album Sarbacane, on which it appears as the second track, and was released in August 1989.

Expert of the French charts Elia Habib deemed that the "very personal" song's lyrics are full of a "colorful poetry with surreal accents".

[3] It earned a silver disc, awarded by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique,[4] thus becoming the most successful single from the album Sarbacane.

[7] In 1998, Guy Béart recorded an album of covers entitled Les Couleurs du temps, released posthumously in 2020, on which appears a version of "C'est écrit" considered by Anthony Martin of RTL a "gold nugget".

[8] In 1999, a singer named MJ recorded his own version of "C'est écrit"; released as a single with Sony label, it charted in France for eight weeks in the top 100 and peaked at number 41 in January 2000.