Let’s talk about Bruno (this time)

We Don’t Talk About Bruno, for the uninitiated, is a song from the lively soundtrack to Disney’s Encanto. The animated film, about a Colombian family with magical gifts and an enchanted fortress that has protected them for generations, arrived in theatres in November to warm reviews. But the movie and its soundtrack, featuring original songs by Lin-manuel Miranda and a score by Germaine Franco, have got more popular since Encanto landed on Disney+ last month. Recently, the soundtrack soared to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart, becoming the first Disney soundtrack to do so since Frozen 2 in 2019. The show-stopping earworm We Don’t Talk About Bruno landed at No. 5 on the Hot 100.

Here’s what you need to know about the soundtrack that is lighting up the charts:

IT HAS MIRANDA’S SIGNATURE TOUCH

Encanto has a narrative soundtrack, with songs that move the story forward — and the story is a layered one. The film follows Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz) as she investigates the tenuous state of her family’s miracle: the enchanting events that bestowed her widowed grandmother with a magical casita in which to raise her three children and generations to come. The film’s opening song, The Family Madrigal, is a buoyant introduction to the Madrigals and their magical gifts.

THE SONGS PULL FROM TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY INFLUENCES

Encanto’s soundtrack and score celebrate Colombia’s rich and diverse musical traditions while featuring some of its brightest stars. Colombia Me Encanto, performed by singer-songwriter Carlos Vives, is a love letter to the South American country.

Other Colombian musicians, including pop stars Maluma and Sebastián Yatra, also appear.

Yatra sings one of the film’s most heart-rending songs, Dos Oruguitas, a violin-filled track about two caterpillars that must go their separate ways, despite their immense love for each other, to find their own futures as butterflies. Miranda told Billboard the Oscar-shortlisted song, envisioned as a Colombian folksong, is his first completely written in Spanish without translating from English.

Some Encanto fans have lobbied for We Don’t Talk About Bruno, an ensemble medley inspired by several genres, to get an Oscar nod, but the studio submitted only its symbolic tear-jerker. Still, Bruno’s a pivotal number because it exposes the literal and figurative cracks in the Madrigal family’s foundation.

The song revolves around Mirabel’s prophetic uncle Bruno (John Leguizamo), who became estranged from his family after sharing unsettling visions.