It’s time to talk about the phenomenon that is “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” a song from Disney’s latest animated musical Encanto. The song, written by the hardest working man in Hollywood, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 surpassing the seemingly inescapable “Let It Go” from Frozen which hit #5 in 2013. Here’s the gag, though… Miranda wrote all of the catchy songs for Encanto, which are all pretty great! But Disney did not single out “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” when it came to the major awards. Instead, the studio submitted “for your consideration” the song “Dos Oruguitas!” That song is terrific, but it recently lost out at the Golden Globes to “No Time To Die” by Billie Eilish. Is it too late for Disney to reconsider before the Oscar nominations?
Following “Let It Go” sung by Idina Menzel, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” performed by Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz, and the rest of the cast, is also one of the only Disney songs to land in the Billboard Top 5 with the original movie version. The other Disney singles to hit the charts were pop cover versions — Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle’s “A Whole New World” from Aladdin which hit #1 in 1993, Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King (#4, 1994), and Vanessa Williams’ “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (#4, 1995). (Okay, I KNOW that Elton John’s song is also the film’s version, but it wasn’t sung by a character on screen, so that’s why I put it there.) Disney enlisted Demi Lovato to sing a pop version of “Let It Go” but it didn’t perform nearly as well as Menzel’s original.
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has racked up 29 million streams and has been downloaded 8,000 times. That also puts it in the same company as “Let It Go” which was assessed similarly, but of course, those songs from the 1990s were measured in an entirely different way as neither streaming nor digital music sales even existed that that time. Back then, it was radio play and physical CD sales that accounted for their success. (God, why do I feel like I’m writing about cave drawings all of a sudden?)
The Encanto soundtrack also deserves credit for becoming only the sixth soundtrack to an animated movie to hit #1 on the Billboard charts, although it has since dropped to #3. The others were The Lion King, Pocahontas, Frozen, Frozen 2, and the non-Disney flick Curious George which was performed by Jack Johnson. That flick was released by Imagine Entertainment and Universal. The Encanto soundtrack is also the first soundtrack to hit #1 since Frozen 2.
Have you seen Encanto yet? It’s now streaming on Disney+. If you have, what songs can’t you get out of your head?
