NEW YORK -- A month after “Encanto” debuted in theaters, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the movie's Colombia-inflected songs, took a long vacation. By the time he returned, something almost as extraordinary as the enchanted home of the movie had transpired.
“Encanto” didn't displace just anybody from the top spot. It overtook Adele. Six songs from the film have charted on the Billboard 100, including “Surface Pressure,” “The Family Madrigal,” “What Else Can I Do?” “Waiting on a Miracle” and “Dos Oruguitas.” All also rank among the most streamed songs on Spotify. There, “We Don't Talk About Bruno” has been streamed more than 100 million times. On YouTube, you can not talk about Bruno in Hungarian and Bahasa Malaysia.
To Miranda, what's most rewarding is how people are connecting to the songs and its characters as expressions of their own family roles and dynamics. For example: “Surface Pressure,” sung by Jessica Darrow, taps into the weight of responsibility felt by an older sibling. Miranda wrote it with his older sister, Luz Miranda-Crespo, in mind.
“I was saying to a friend: I think this is my `Send in the Clowns,”' says Miranda. “`Send in the Clowns' was Stephen Sondheim's only chart-topper. Who would have guessed out of the millions of songs he wrote that it would be `Send in the Clowns'? It feels random in one sense. “That's always the process with me. There's lots of terrible demos. Often those are sung at 3 or 4 a.m., so they don't sound great,” says Miranda, laughing. “I think TikTok has had a field day with the demos I've released because I'm warbling and my voice is cracking.”
“It's not a thing you consciously chase,” he says. “I'm thrilled to be even within spitting distance of it.”
IMO: Encanto can teach about vulnerability and relationships. My advice is to lose the word “perfect” from our vocabulary and acknowledge the strength within us btw: Hosting family movie nights in my horse stables we, and our horses have now watched Encanto 7 times, maybe 8