The soundtrack of ‘Encanto’, the new Disney animated film, has reached number 1 on the Billboard chart, displacing Adele’s ’30’ after six weeks at the top.
The album “Encanto”, which features songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda that draw on salsa and hip-hop and are performed on traditional Colombian instruments, came out in November – initially landing at number 197 – and has had a steady climb to the top. Following the film’s streaming release on Disney+ on Christmas Eve, the soundtrack entered Billboard’s Top 10.
One of the tracks, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, is currently the most streamed song on Spotify, beating out a slew of new songs from the Weeknd. (The Weeknd’s surprise album, “Dawn FM,” released on Friday with just a few days’ notice, is expected to open in big numbers on next week’s charts.)
The soundtrack to “Encanto,” which also features pieces from Germaine Franco’s film score, topped 72,000 sales in the United States last week, according to Billboard’s tracking arm MRC Data. That total includes 88 million streams and 11,000 copies sold as a complete package. “Encanto” is the first soundtrack to reach #1 on the Billboard chart since “Frozen 2” in late 2019.
Adele’s “30” fell to #2, while Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” is #3 in its 52nd week. While Wallen has been publicly snubbed by the music industry after being caught on video with racist remarks last year — he received no Grammy nominations — “Dangerous” has been a huge success, with steady fan loyalty.
“Dangerous” was the most popular album of 2021, with the equivalent of 3.2 million sales in the United States, according to MRC – by far beating “30” and other hits by Olivia Rodrigo and Drake. Since it came out last January, “Dangerous” has been in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart every week except for one, last month, when it was pushed out by a number of Christmas albums.
Red Light District kicks off in February with a tour of the arenas, including a date at Madison Square Garden on February 9.
Also this week, Rodrigo’s “Sour” is number 4 and Taylor Swift’s Red “(Taylor’s Version)” is number 5.