Warning: contains mild spoilers for Encanto.
It’s official: the world can’t stop talking about Bruno. Or, more accurately, can’t stop singing about him. Because despite its title, ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ – the breakout hit from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Encanto, penned by one Lin-Manuel Miranda – is the UK’s official #1 song right now, the first Disney song to ever reach the top spot. In the States, it’s rising up the Hot 100 singles chart (current position: #2), while the Encanto soundtrack album has once again hit #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It’s been played over 82 million times on Spotify, viewed over 133 million times on YouTube, and has been taking over TikTok for weeks – it’s officially an even bigger chart hit than Frozen behemoth ‘Let It Go’. Ironically, Bruno might be the one thing everyone is talking about right now.
For Encanto’s three directors – Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith – the magnitude of the song’s success has been a pleasant surprise, though they suspected they had a hit on their hands right from its initial incarnation. “Even from that first demo that we got from Lin, which is 12 different Lin-Manuel Mirandas all layered on top of each other in these crazy counterpoint harmonies, I think we knew it,” says Howard. Bruno was, he says, “a delicious character” to play with – a fortune-telling uncle, who becomes the black sheep of the Madrigal family when his ominous premonitions come true, eventually ostracised from the local community.
“That was probably the most earwormy song that we heard that Lin did,” agrees Bush. But ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ is a rare kind of Disney hit. For one it’s not a ballad – where Frozen’s ‘Let It Go’, Aladdin’s ‘A Whole New World’ and The Lion King’s ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’ soar on swooning melodies, ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ slinks along on a spooky salsa beat, a mid-tempo bop that just won’t stop. It’s also a song that’s rooted firmly in the context of the film’s narrative, as Stephanie Beatriz’s hero Mirabel digs around in Bruno’s history to discover why her family’s inherited magic is fading. Rather than being performed by a single character, it’s an ensemble number sung by at least 10 people. And Bruno himself doesn’t even figure – while the song is about him, his eventual reappearance comes later in the film.
I've lost days to 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' TikTok – Jared Bush
In initial drafts of Encanto, ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ didn’t feature at all. “It was very difficult, in the early versions, not to let it become a buddy movie between Mirabel and Bruno,” reveals Howard of the character’s development. “He was actually Mirabel’s age at one point. We tried him as kind of a chubbier, funnier uncle who she met earlier in the movie.” But something clicked when the filmmakers reckoned with the repercussions of Bruno’s gift – figuring that his precognition would likely turn the family, and the townsfolk, against him. “We thought about how tragic that would be,” says Howard, “because he's delivering the truth. He's telling people what's going to happen – but people don't want to hear bad news. [We thought about] him getting this terrible reputation around town, people thinking he's making these things happen and how messed up that would make someone.” Suddenly, having Bruno be a character driven out from the community offered a stellar songwriting opportunity. “If he’s not been around for 10 years – nobody knows where he went, and he has this reputation – then this really deserves to be a gossipy, chisme song about everyone’s misperception of him. What was this guy up to? And Lin loved that.”
Though Miranda was on board with the idea for the song, there was just one problem – Bruno wasn’t actually called Bruno yet. “He used to be named Oscar,” laughs Smith. “And Oscar doesn’t really rhyme with anything, so…” Naming issues aside, the seeds for the song were sown on a fateful Friday afternoon Zoom call between the songwriter and the three directors. “It was a really wonderful, iconic moment,” Smith recalls. “[We were talking] about what this awesome sort of telephone-game of a song could be, and he turned to his keyboard next to him and just plunked out the first three chords of the song. ‘Oh, you mean like this?’ Bom-bom-bommm. We were off to the races.”
The finished song was not only incredibly catchy, but served multiple purposes: driving the plot forward, building the mystery of who Bruno really is, and handing the spotlight to the family members who don’t get their own solo number. “It wasn’t just characters talking about Bruno,” says Bush. “Because they were talking about their prophecies, you actually got to meet other characters and learn a little bit about them.” There are insights into Pepa and Félix’s rain-lashed wedding day, Dolores’ admission that she still hears Bruno around the house, and a trio of townsfolk with misfortunes ranging from a sickly goldfish to impending baldness – pour one out for dead-fish lady. “You actually get to meet other characters and learn a little bit about them,” Bush continues. “They have these really amazing moments where you realise there's a lot going on with them too. It's such a brilliant job of doing that.”
That spirit of collaboration has continued into the song’s legacy on social media. On TikTok, it’s been reinterpreted countless ways – from covers to lip-syncs, cosplays to choreography breakdowns. Tribute cakes? Officially a thing. Recreations in The Sims? You bet. Even Stephanie Beatriz has got in on the act.
The filmmakers are just as hooked on those videos as the rest of us. “I’ve lost days to ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ TikTok,” laughs Bush. “I love that everyone’s finding their own moment and character and dynamic. It’s the best.” As in the song itself, it’s a number that allows content creators, families and friends to all pitch in together. “It demands group participation because it’s layer upon layer of people,” Howard explains. “That’s what’s great with TikTok specifically. There’s all the duetting, where people find, ‘Oh, this little cat made a funny sound, and now I’ll add my guitar on top of that, then again when the trombone comes in.’ These things sort of build, and that’s been happening with the song.”
Having lived with ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ for years at this point (“It’s my daughter’s favourite, so it’s on heavy rotation in our house,” says Smith), the filmmakers claim they still aren’t fed up of it yet. But if you thought they might have a tip of how not to think about ‘Bruno’ for a little while, you’re out of luck. “Yeah, sorry,” Smith laughs, “we got nothin’ for ya.” If we come up with one, we’ll let you know. (No-no-no-no).
Encanto is streaming now on Disney+
READ MORE: Let It Go: How Frozen II Moved Beyond Disney's Biggest Hit