Encanto may not have managed to rake in a ton of money during its theatrical release back in the fall, but it has found a new life after hitting Disney+ in December, and now that new life includes a musical milestone that no Disney movie has hit in nearly 30 years.
One of the songs featured in the movie, titled “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, just hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. This feat hasn’t been accomplished by any song from an animated Disney feature since “A Whole New World” from Aladdin way back in 1993. (No, not even Frozen’s “Let It Go” managed to get there.)
This is extra surprising given the nature of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” as a song; it’s neither a romantic duet a la the aforementioned “A Whole New World” nor a power ballad akin to the likes of “Part of Your World” or “Reflection”. Those are songs that can be enjoyed in a context outside of the stories they help tell; “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a plot-heavy number featuring most of the movie’s characters and little context on what’s going on. In other words, it doesn’t really make sense outside the story of Encanto.
And yet, the song has managed to transcend the boundaries of the film and earn a place of its own in popular culture. It makes no sense until one remembers how many if not most of today’s popular music gets big: TikTok.
While definitely not the sole contributor to the success of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, the video app is the perfect place for a song that is equally musically complex and oddly meme-able to make it big. If songs from The Backyardigans can find new life in TikTok, there’s no reason why a song from a Disney animated movie shouldn’t be able to do well on there.
Of course, there’s also the Lin-Manuel Miranda factor, as his storytelling songs have made it into the mainstream before, most notably the music of the hit Broadway show Hamilton. Encanto isn’t even Miranda’s first foray into doing the music for a Disney movie; he also did it for 2016’s Moana, though that movie didn’t have any songs as rich and interesting to listen to as “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”. The song very well could have been his EGOT-completer had Disney chosen to submit it for Oscar consideration instead of “Dos Oruguitas”, another song from the movie. (Maybe it’ll get the job done, but “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” feels like a surer bet.)
For now, even if the Family Madrigal refuses to talk about Bruno, everyone in the real world can’t seem to shut up about him. And at the end of the day, even if you’re sick of the TikTok memes, it’s nice to see Disney songs that aren’t inspirational or romantic get some love from the world.
