“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is Disney’s Highest-Charting Song Since 1995
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is the earworm that’s topping the charts since the release of Disney’s Encanto in November
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Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is the earworm that’s topping the charts since the release of Disney’s Encanto in November. The catchy track that’s gone viral and hit the No.1 spot on Spotify has climbed the Billboard Hot 100 to the No.4 spot making it the highest charting Disney hit since “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas in 1995. It surpassed “Let It Go” from Frozen, the other earworm that you couldn’t escape in 2013 which peaked at the No.5 spot. The song is performed by Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz, and the Encanto cast. The film’s soundtrack became the sixth animated soundtrack in history reach the No.1 spot on the Billboard 200 .
“We could see Lin thinking, and he looked at us and said, ‘It feels like a spooky ghost story, like a spooky montuno.’ And he turns to the piano and plays the first three chords. We literally saw him put it together and compose in that very moment. I’ve never had that happen before… We had to build this all from our imagination. What helped make this piece unique is that we had a group of Latinx dancers from Colombia, from Cuba, from Puerto Rico — people who understood the assignment,” the filmmakers said in a statement, reported Screenrant.
Miranda recorded all 10 parts of the song himself before the cast members separately recorded their respective parts due to the pandemic, the New York Times reported. He conceptualized it as a “spooky” song inspired by montuno, a Cuban repetitive song pattern. The publication reported that the character of Bruno was actually going to be named Oscar but due to the popularity of the name “Oscar Madrigal” they changed it to Bruno which also worked perfectly for the signature line, “We don’t talk about Bruno no no…”.
Many of the stars of the film have recorded themselves performing or lip-syncing the track likely because of its immense popularity on TikTok. Beatriz, who voices Mirabel, posted a TikTok performing the parts of both Felix and Pepa, one of the most popular snippets of the song because of their interchange.
The soundtrack’s success mirrors the film’s success which earned $93.1 million domestically and $222.6 million globally. Billboard highlighted that its success is also rare considering the soundtrack didn’t debut at No.1, instead coming in at No. 197 on Dec. 11, 2021 and less than a month later it climbed all the way to the top. It’s also the first soundtrack to hit No. 1 since Disney’s Frozen II in 2019. With this massive level of success both for the film and the soundtrack, it will hopefully open the doors for more Latinx-led films for Disney and other major studios. In the meantime you can expect more “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” renditions all over social media.
