Luís Gil Bettencourt (born June 26, 1956) is a Portuguese-American musician, songwriter, and music producer.

Luís Gil Mendes Bettencourt was born in 1956 in the town of Praia da Vitória, on Terceira Island of the Azores.

[1] Bettencourt returned to Portugal in 1984, and in 1985 released his first solo album, Empty Space, collaborating with the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

Later in the decade he composed soundtracks for RTP Açores programmes and served as a musical director alongside José "Zeca" Medeiros.

[2] He was involved in the creation of events such as the Azores cultural show at Expo '98 in Lisbon, creating for this purpose the Lira Açoriana regional orchestra to train young brass musicians in the islands.