Bilingual continues the heavily instrumented arrangements and backing vocals Pet Shop Boys began adding to their music with the album Very (1993). As the title suggests, a number of the songs on Bilingual have international influences. On their 1994 Discovery Tour in South America, the duo were influenced by the beats and rhythms associated with Latin American music. Initially, the whole album was intended to have a Latin American sound, but the concept was not fully realised.
Three songs have bilingual lyrics, mixing English with Spanish on "Discoteca" and "Single-Bilingual" and with Portuguese on "Se a vida é", which was based on a song by the Brazilian group Olodum."It Always Comes as a Surprise" opens with a sample of Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto and features percussion sounds from a berimbau and cuícas. A sample of Spanish gypsy music was used on "To Step Aside", and a Russian choir sang on "A Red Letter Day". Neil Tennant described four of the songs—"Metamorphosis", "Electricity", "Before", and "Saturday Night Forever"—as a "New York dance album" within the album.
In August 1994, Pet Shop Boys started writing songs for the album, including "Discoteca", at Unique Studios, where they had originally recorded "West End Girls". While in New York, they heard live samba drums at the Sound Factory Bar, which inspired their Discovery Tour later that year. For the album, they worked with the Scottish women's drumming ensemble SheBoom, who specialised in samba rhythms, as well as samba percussionist Robin Jones.
Recording began in April 1995 and continued on and off into the following year. The duo worked at Sarm West and Bunk Junk & Genius in London, and they also set up their own studio in a rented house outside Henley-on-Thames and used nearby Sarm Hook End as well. In June 1995, they went to New York to record the single "Before" at Axis and Bass Hit studios with Danny Tenaglia, who later came to the UK to produce the track "Saturday Night Forever". Pet Shop Boys worked with producer Chris Porter on five tracks: "Se a vida é", "It Always Comes as a Surprise", "Up Against It", "The Survivors", and "To Step Aside". One track, "Metamorphosis", was produced by Paul Roberts and Andy Williams of K-Klass. In March 1996, Tennant traveled to Moscow to record the Russian choir on "A Red Letter Day" at the State House of Broadcasting and Sound Recording.
Prior to the album's release, Pet Shop Boys collaborated with David Bowie on the song "Hallo Spaceboy", which reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1996. In April, Bilingual was preceded by the top 10 single "Before", followed by another hit single, "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)", in August. The album was released on 2 September 1996 by Parlophone in the UK and on 10 September by Atlantic Records in the US.
In late 1995, Pet Shop Boys ended their contract with the American branch of EMI and signed with Atlantic Records. A renewed marketing campaign was launched to promote the band in the United States via both radio airplay and club play. Bilingual was positioned as one of Atlantic's top releases for the fourth quarter of 1996, with an aggressive pricing strategy.
The CD cover (pictured) had a screen printed frosted finish of dirty varnish, with the album title in clear plastic revealing a yellow booklet and the band name through the lettering. The LP was yellow with white lettering. The concept, designed by Mark Farrow, was meant to convey luxury packaging; however, a Parlophone executive later described it as giving the message "I'm not for you" instead of "Buy me". Rather than doing a photoshoot of the duo, informal pictures were used for the booklet and inner sleeve. The photos were in duplicate, playing on the "bi" theme. The special edition cover had a double image of the duo taken by Andy Earl. Lyrics were included in the packaging for the first time.
Bilingual debuted at number four on the UK albums chart and spent nine weeks in the top 100 in 1996. The album was certified gold upon release by the British Phonographic Industry. Worldwide, Bilingual had sold 1.5 million copies by February 1997, with the top markets for the album being Italy, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Asia. In the US, where Bilingual peaked at 39 on the Billboard 200, the album sold 149,000 copies by 2006.
In 2001, Pet Shop Boys reissued their first six studio albums; Bilingual was re-released as Bilingual: Further Listening 1995–1997. It was digitally remastered and included a second disc of B-sides and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release. A remastered single-disc edition followed on 9 February 2009, under the title of Bilingual: Remastered, containing only the 12 tracks of the original. In 2018, a newly remastered edition of Bilingual: Further Listening 1995–1997 was released, with the same contents as the 2001 edition.
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