“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is the second Disney song to ever hit the top of the Billboard charts
It took nearly 30 years, but the Encanto hit has brought Disney back to the top of the Hot 100
Most people have their favorite Disney songs (and you’re a cool and good person if your pick is anything from Hercules), but there have apparently only ever been two songs in the entire century-long history of Disney cartoons that everyone can get behind—at least according to the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The first was Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” (an okay song), which hit number one on the Billboard chart way back in 1993.
Now it finally has some company, with the somewhat inescapable “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto following up its status as a viral/meme-y hit by becoming an actual hit. It got to the number one spot this week, only the second time Disney has ever done that, and it also makes “Bruno” the first number one hit for its sole songwriter, a man you have heard of named Lin-Manuel Miranda. On a similar note, this is also the first time in four years that a song with only one writer got to the top spot on Billboard’s chart, with the last one being Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.”
Some other interesting factoids: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” was co-produced by Miranda and Mike Elizondo, and while this is also Miranda’s first time at number one as a producer, it’s the second for Elizondo. His first was 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” nearly 20 years ago. Here’s another one: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has now set a record for most credited performers on a song at the top of the Hot 100 track, seeing as how it’s an ensemble piece featuring Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, and Stephanie Beatriz (all of whom are at number one for the first time, naturally).
Billboard, which lives for this kind of granular analysis, points out that the enormous array of celebrities singing on “We Are The World” were only credited as USA For Africa, so… it sucks to be them.