# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/bill-whelan
# Generated: 2026-08-13T10:49:36.414Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/bill-whelan"
name: "Bill Whelan"
slug: "bill-whelan"
description: "William Michael Joseph Whelan is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, \"Riverdance\", was a seven-minute piece of original music accompanying a new take on traditional Irish stepdance that became a full-length stage production and spawned a worldwide craze for Irish traditional music and dance. The corresponding soundtrack album earned him a Grammy. \"Riverdance\" was released as a single in 1994, credited to \"Bill Whelan and Anúna featuring the RTÉ Concert Orchestra\". It reached number one in Ireland for 18 weeks and number nine in the UK. The album of the same title reached number 31 in the album charts in 1995."
tagline: "Irish composer"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United Kingdom"
  isoCode: "GB"
category:
  name: "Musicians"
  slug: "musicians"
profileType:
  name: "Singer / Musician"
  slug: "singer"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q177220"
birthDate: "1950-05-22"
livingStatus: "LIVING"
scores:
  popularity:           49.22
  momentum:             11.23942704252834
  historical:           9.910622666666669
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  60
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0924013/"
    handle:    "nm0924013"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/254923"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84_%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "بيل ويلان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84_%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "بيل ويلان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%84_%D9%88%DB%8C%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "بیل ویلان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Whelan"
    title: "Bill Whelan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Whelan"
    title: "Bill Whelan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Whelan"
    title: "Bill Whelan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Whelan"
    title: "Bill Whelan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Whelan"
    title: "Bill Whelan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Whelan"
    title: "Bill Whelan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ur.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%84_%D9%88%DB%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%86"
    title: "بل وہیلن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/a76bac9c-903a-4be7-8046-debf58de2ee9"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2469021"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump