‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ Becomes First Disney Song to Top Billboard Hot 100 in 29 Years
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the surprise hit off the “Encanto” soundtrack, has gone where even “Let It Go” couldn’t: It’s become the first song from a Disney movie to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin” did it in 1993.
It joins the “Encanto” album itself as a chart-topper, as the animated film’s soundtrack remains atop the Billboard 200 chart for the third time in the last four weeks.
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Some other stats Billboard points out: “Bruno,” solely penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, becomes the first Hot 100 chart-topper to have been written by a solo writer in more than four years, Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” having been the last. It’s the first time a Miranda tune has topped the chart. And it’s only the second time a Disney song has reached the top, since “A Whole New World” was the only one to ever do it previously.
And it did this with close to no radio play, which is highly unusual for a chart in which spins play a considerable factor.
(If you’re wondering how high “Let It Go” got, the answer is: a mere No. 5, despite its seeming cultural ubiquity in 2014.)
Billboard also reports that no song with this many credited lead singers has made it to No. 1 before. The track is credited to Colombian singer-actor Carolina Gaitán (who plays Pepa Madrigal in the film), Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz and the “Encanto” cast. With six performers individually named, that beats the old record by one.
The ascent of “Bruno” made things hard on Adele’s “Easy on Me,” which was finally forced to relinquish the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 after a 10-week run at the top. “Easy on Me” slips just one spot to No. 2. Of course, Billboard points out, Adele’s song still easily topped the Radio Songs chart, with 94.6 audience impressions for the week, on top of 14.1 million streams.
“Bruno,” meanwhile, drew 34.9 million U.S. streams — more than twice as many as Adele’s long-running hit — but a paltry 1.5 million radio airplay audience impressions… about 1/62nd the number of Adele’s radio power. Still, with a radio increase of 239% for the week, it’s clear that at least a few more stations are starting to try “Bruno” out for a spot in their playlists.
The Nos. 3-8 songs from last week remain frozen in place, led by Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” at No. 3.
Gayle’s song “abcdefu” is at No. 8 on the Hot 100, just like last week, but it’s No. 1 for the fourth week on two key international Billboard charts, the Global 200 and the Global Excl. U.S. chart.
On the Billboard 200 album char, “Encanto” stayed on top with 115,000 album-equivalent units. That’s up 11% from the previous week, and its best weekly total to date as the album continues to see percentage increases week after week.
Two albums debuted in the top 10: Youngboy Never Broke Again’s “Colors,” at No. 2, and country star Walker Hayes’ “Country Stuff: The Album” at No. 9. The former album bowed with 79,000 album-equivalent units and the latter — Hayes’ first full-length album since breaking out with “Fancy Like” — entered with 33,000. For Hayes, it’s his first time in the top 10 on the album chart.
In their third weeks out, the new albums by Gunna and the Weeknd fell one spot each, to Nos. 3-4, respectively.
Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” was considered a possibility for returning to the top 10 in the wake of his death, but didn’t quite make the cut. Billboard has not yet revealed the full Billboard 200 beyond the top 10.
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