WASHINGTON — Anyone who tunes into the Oscars will certainly wind up talking about "Bruno."
The 94th Academy Awards will feature the first live performance of "We Don't Talk About Bruno," starring members of the "Encanto" cast and Latin music powerhouses Becky G and Luis Fonsi.
Despite the song's viral success (the official music video has more than 350 million views on YouTube), it won't vie for an Oscar on Sunday. Instead, the movie's Spanish-language song “Dos Oruguitas” is nominated for best original song.
While “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has became the highest-charting song from a Disney animated film in more than 26 years, no one knew just how wildly successful it would be when it was time to submit an original song for consideration at the Oscars. That decision had to be made by Nov. 1 and the movie didn't come out until Nov. 24.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the songs for "Encanto," told Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast he doesn't regret submitting "Dos Oruguitas" over "Bruno" for Oscars consideration.
“When those are the parameters, you have to pick the thing that best exemplifies the spirit of the movie, and ‘Dos Oruguitas’ contains all of it inside this song – as opposed to a journey of a particular character. It’s the foundational story of how all of them got their gifts...but I’m not going to say it wasn’t hard [to pick one],” Miranda told Variety.
The "Hamilton" creator added that the song's viral success was a huge surprise and that "never in a million years" would he have figured "Bruno" would be the hit above all the others on the soundtrack.
Colombian singer-songwriter Sebastián Yatra will perform the Oscar-nominated "Dos Oruguitas" during Sunday's show. The ceremony will also feature performances by Beyoncé, Billie Eilish and other nominees for best original song.