Arts and culture

Bilal Khan (music)

Bilal Khan (بلال خان) is a Pakistani singer-songwriter from Lahore whose home-recorded single "Bachana" went viral, leading to two albums and Coke Studio appearances from 2011.

Bilal Saeed (بلال سعید)

Bilal Saeed (بلال سعید) is a Pakistani singer, composer, and songwriter known for "12 Saal" (2011) and "Teri Khair Mangdi" from the 2016 film Baar Baar Dekho.

Bilal Sonses

Bilal Sonses is a Turkish singer, songwriter, and composer born in Istanbul in 1993, known since his 2016 song "İki Kelime"; his duet "Hasbelkader" topped the Turkish charts in 2020.

Bilal: A New Breed of Hero is a 2015 3D animated action-adventure film by Dubai's Barajoun Entertainment, directed by Ayman Jamal and Khurram H. Alavi, based on Bilal ibn Rabah; first Middle Eastern CG feature, $30M budget, premiered at DIFF 2015.

Bilangan Fu

Bilangan Fu is a 2008 Indonesian novel by Ayu Utami, her third, following the rock climber Sandi Yuda in rural Java; it won the 2008 Khatulistiwa Literary Award.

Bilanka Ramayana

Bilanka Ramayana (ବିଲଙ୍କା ରାମାୟଣ) is an Odia poetic retelling of the Ramayana, attributed to Sarala Das, in which Rama, aided by Sita, kills a thousand-headed Ravana in the subterranean city of Bilanka.

Bilawal Lahooti

Bilawal Lahooti is a Pakistani drummer and percussionist of the Lahore alternative rock band Karakoram, credited on the band's Coke Studio Season 14 song "Ye Dunya" in 2022.

Bilbo Baggins

Bilbo Baggins (Bilba Labingi), Tolkien's hobbit hero of The Hobbit (1937) and figure in The Lord of the Rings: found the One Ring in T.A. 2941, first bearer to give it up voluntarily, sailed West aged 131.

Bild Lilli doll

Bild Lilli doll: German fashion doll made 1955-1964 by O. M. Hausser, based on Reinhard Beuthien's Lilli cartoon in the Bild newspaper; model for Mattel's Barbie, whose rights Mattel bought in 1964.

Bilderbuch

Bilderbuch is an Austrian art-pop band from Kremsmünster in Upper Austria, founded in 2005, known for a danceable mix of hip-hop, R&B, and pop sung in mixed German and English.

Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman: German term for the novel of formation or education, coined by Karl Morgenstern at Dorpat in 1819; paradigmatic example Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship; tracks a protagonist's maturation to adulthood.

Bilge Karasu

Bilge Karasu (1930–1995) was a Turkish writer known for experimental, densely symbolic fiction treating loneliness, fear, and death; his novel Gece (Night) won the Pegasus Literature Award.

Bilinda Butcher

Bilinda Jayne Butcher (born 1961, England) is the English vocalist and guitarist of shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine, joined April 1987; co-creator of Isn't Anything, Loveless, and m b v.

Bilingual (album)

Bilingual is the sixth studio album by Pet Shop Boys, released 2 September 1996 on Parlophone. A Latin-influenced synthpop record framed as a reaction against Britpop, it peaked at UK No. 4 and US No. 39.

Bill & Jillian Nershi ft. Jason Hann

Bill & Jillian Nershi ft. Jason Hann, billed the Nershi Hann Trio, is an acoustic side project of The String Cheese Incident that first toured in 2023.

Bill & Ted

Bill & Ted comedy franchise: Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves) time-travel in a phone booth; films from 1989, 1991, 2020; band Wyld Stallyns' song saves the universe.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Bill & Ted Face the Music, also called Bill & Ted III, is a 2020 American science-fiction comedy and the third film in the Bill & Ted series.

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is a 1991 American science fiction comedy directed by Peter Hewitt, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as Bill and Ted, the sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science-fiction comedy directed by Stephen Herek, in which two San Dimas teenagers travel through history to collect historical figures.

Bill Alexander (painter)

Bill Alexander (Wilhelm Alexander, 1915–1997), German-born painter and PBS host of The Magic of Oil Painting, popularized wet-on-wet oil painting in America and taught Bob Ross; distinct from the Georgia fiber artist and the 1767–1816 watercolorist.

Bill Anderson (singer)

Bill Anderson (James William Anderson III, born 1937), "Whispering Bill," American country singer-songwriter, Grand Ole Opry member since 1961; wrote "City Lights" (Ray Price #1, 1958), hit "Still" (1963), Country Music Hall of Fame 2001.

Bill Bailey

Bill Bailey, born Mark Robert Bailey in 1965, is an English comedian, musician, and actor known for musical stand-up shows and for starring in Black Books.

Bill Bartlett (musician)

Bill Bartlett, born in 1946, is a rock guitarist known as lead guitarist of the Lemon Pipers, whose "Green Tambourine" topped the US charts in 1968.

Bill Berry

Bill Berry (William Thomas Berry, born 1958) is the American drummer and founding member of R.E.M. who left the band in 1997 after a 1995 brain aneurysm, distinct from the 1930–2002 jazz trumpeter and a comedy singer-songwriter of the same name.

Bill Bixby

Bill Bixby (Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III, 1934–1993), American TV actor and director, star of My Favorite Martian, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Magician, and The Incredible Hulk; died of prostate cancer while directing Blossom.

Bill Black

Bill Black (1926–1965), Memphis bassist, played slap upright bass on Elvis Presley's first Sun single in 1954 with the Blue Moon Boys, then led Bill Black's Combo, charting 19 Hot 100 instrumentals on Hi Records.

Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt, born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt in Hamburg (1904–1983), was a British photographer whose work moved from 1930s social documentary to high-contrast, wide-angle distorted nudes and landscapes.

Bill Bruford

Bill Bruford (William Scott Bruford, born 1949) is an English drummer, co-founder of Yes and longtime King Crimson drummer, leader of Bruford and Earthworks, PhD (Surrey 2016), retired 2009, returned 2023 with Pete Roth Trio.

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson (born 1951, Des Moines, Iowa) is an American-British author of humorous travel, language, and science books, including Notes from a Small Island and A Short History of Nearly Everything, Aventis and Descartes Prize winner and former Durham University chancellor.