We Don’t Talk About Bruno becomes Disney’s first No 1 single in 29 years

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” the surprise hit of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s animated film Encanto, has become Disney’s first chart-topping single since “A Whole New World”.

On Monday (31 January) “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” climbed to the No 1 spot on the US Top 100, a feat not achieved by Disney since the Aladdin track was released 29 years ago.

It is also the first song written by a solo writer to achieve this feat since Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” rose to the No 1 position four years ago.

Miranda is the only person credited as a songwriter for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”.

Meanwhile, the Encanto album has remained at the top of the Billboard 200 chart for three out of four non-successive weeks this month.

At the time of writing, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” dropped to the No 2 position, trailing Adele’s “Easy On Me” that was released in October last year.

During a recent interview, Encanto director Miranda deconstructed the film’s songs and his songwriting process.

Speaking about “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, the 42-year-old said: “What I was trying to do — it’s much more commonplace in musical theatre than it is in musical films. You have those great moments where everyone gets a little showpiece and then you smash them altogether.”

“I think of “One Day More” from Les Miserables or “Non-Stop” in Hamilton. It’s always such a delightful moment when you get to crash all the themes into each other,” the award-winning director said.

Apart from “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and “Let It Go” from 2013 animated movie Frozen, only three other songs from Disney animated films have reached a Top 5 position in the US: “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, and “Colours of the Wind” from Pocahontas.