Oscars' 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' Encanto Performance Upsets Parents

Parents were left upset and disappointed by the Encanto performance at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, after the movie's hit song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" was remixed into a new version that featured rapper Megan Thee Stallion.

While the Encanto cast attended the show and was accounted for during the performance, they were also joined by a number of special guests, including Latin music stars Luis Fonsi and Becky G. However, fans were thrown for a loop when Megan Thee Stallion made a surprise appearance with edited lyrics.

"My kid waited up for the @EncantoMovie 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' performance at the #Oscar, watched it, and then disappointedly said 'That wasn't Bruno...' as she sadly walked to bed," one parent tweeted.

The song became a sleeper hit after the release of Disney's animated film Encanto, which won this year's Best Animated Feature. The movie was also nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

Encanto Parents Oscars Performance
Encanto fans shared their disappointment of the "We Don't Talk About Bruno" performance at the Oscars' on Sunday night. Becky G, Megan Thee Stallion, and Luis Fonsi perform the song onstage during the 94th Annual... Neilson Barnard/Getty

"We Don't Talk About Bruno" was not nominated for an award as neither the studio, or songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, had anticipated the success of the song. The Oscar's submission deadline for the category came three weeks before the film's release and Disney chose to submit the movie's ballad "Dos Oruguitas" instead.

However, the ensemble song quickly climbed the charts and set a Billboard record as the longest-reigning Disney song and the record for the biggest number of artists named on a No. 1 Hot 100 song. It also became widely popular on Tik Tok.

On Sunday, the song featured a new verse, with lyrics including: "Everyday, all the kids want to hear is 'Bruno.' 'Bruno' this, 'Bruno' that, it's the new 'Let It Go.'

"We got three hosts. These women are the best and they're killing all the jokes," Megan Thee Stallion sang about the show's three hosts—Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall and Amy Schumer.

"Feeling for all the parents who told their kids that they could stay up to watch 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' because that was not 'We Don't Talk About Bruno,'" podcaster Mike Morrison tweeted.

Mike Chau, who runs a popular food account @FoodBabyNY, posted a video of his kids reaction to the performance, writing, "Every child watching the most explicit female rapper inexplicably replacing their favorites parts of the song that they've been singing every day all year."

Earlier in the evening, parents already seemed frustrated that the performance came on so late in the night, with many taking to social media to express concerns that their kids had to stay up to watch the Encanto show.

"I feel like 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' was really for the kids, and putting it this late in the evening was cruel," one Twitter user wrote.

"The Oscars just pis**d me off. My daughter stayed up late to see them perform We don't talk about Bruno & they did the first 3 lines of it & then changed the words to be about the Oscars. So wrong. I don't like when my daughter is disappointed," another said.

Newsweek reached out to the Academy Awards for comment but did not hear back before publication.

Correction 03/29/2021, 1:41 p.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect the correct lyric from Sunday's performance at the Oscars.

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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more

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