Disney’s ‘Encanto’ Will Not Showcase Hit Song at Oscars [Video]

Despite Disney’s recent dip in sales in China during 2021, its new animated movie “Encanto” has become a hit for audiences around the world. The studio release made the company at least $216 million in revenue. Its soundtrack is also breaking records, with eight songs written by “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. The music, including the smash hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” dethroned Adele’s album from the No. 1 spot on Apple Music and iTunes.

Disney’s Bruno Song Gains Internet Fame

Since it skyrocketed up the charts last week, the sensational album has garnered attention from thousands of fans online. Its most popular song centralizes around the secrecy behind Encanto’s supposed villain, Bruno Madrigal, played by John Leguizamo.

Tiktok, apparently, has “Bruno” listed as “one of the featured trends, with sounds from the album collecting more than one billion views.” Even with all these recent developments, Disney will not nominate the movie’s most popular song for an Oscar.

It is fair to say that the “Encanto” album could have been an undisputed shoo-in for the Oscars’ best original song award.

Miranda has won this award before with his first Oscar nomination for “How Far I’ll Go” from “Moana,” another popular Disney film. Knowing this, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” would have had a good chance of winning despite the competition’s “deep bench of competitors that includes Beyoncé and Ariana Grande.”

The Wrong Song

Surprisingly, the award strategists at Disney opted for more emotional songs, like “Dos Oruguitas.” Granted, they had to choose a song by the Academy’s deadline of November 1, and the movie did not hit the big screens until November 24, so the studio had to rely on their instincts to pick the best song.

Miranda’s expertise in songwriting might have also been a hindrance for Disney to compete with more titles. The talented artist has worked on other projects this past year, including Warner Bros.’s “In the Heights” and Netflix’s “Vivo.”

The Academy’s rule does not allow contestants to submit more than two songs from the same movie and the same writer at the same time. To date, there are only four films that have broken that rule with three songs: “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), “The Lion King” (1994), “Dreamgirls” (2006), and “Enchanted” (2007).

Disney has also had a winning streak in recent years when it comes to the Oscars’ music category. Songs like “Wish Upon A Star” in “Pinnochio” (1940) and “Remember Me” in “Coco” (2017) might have already increased “Encanto’s” odds at the Oscars. However, the question of how well it would’ve done with “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” still remains a mystery.

Opinion News by Ogechi Onyewuchi
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware

Sources:

The Variety: ‘Encanto’s’ ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ Is Topping the Charts. So Why Didn’t Disney Submit It for Oscars? By Clayton Davis
Billboard: ‘Encanto’ Soundtrack Surges to No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart; by Keith Caulfield
The New York Times: ‘Encanto’ Soundtrack Ousts Adele From No. 1; by Ben Sisario

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First Inline Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page- Creative Commons License
Second Inline Image Courtesy of Luke Harold’s Flickr Page- Public Domain