Encanto

An opening number that introduces the family members and their gifts in turn.

• Each time a family member is introduced in the opening, a short musical fragment comes with it, functioning as a guiding motif (leitmotif) for that character, so the audience recognizes it when it returns later.
• Rapid Spanish rhymes mingle with percussion drawn from Colombian rhythms, conveying the identity of the village where it all takes place without any need for explanation.
• At the moment Mirabel mentions that she has no gift, the accompaniment briefly thins out, a signal of lack that recurs throughout the story.
• The song locks precisely with the staging, which strings the film's entire opening sequence together in a single breath, introducing the characters and the setting at the same time.

A joyful tribute to Colombia, heard in the scene where Antonio receives his gift and again from the film's final scene through the end credits.

• First sung in the celebration where Antonio receives his gift, it returns from the film's final scene through the end credits.
• A buoyant tune in the style of vallenato, Colombian popular music, celebrating the land of Colombia itself.

A song in which strong older sister Luisa pours out the burdens she never lets show.

• Even without the lyrics, the rhythm alone conveys breathless, repetitive toil, portraying the inner pressure of a character who seems unbreakable.
• The way the voices swell and pile up in the chorus captures the moment just before long-suppressed feelings spill out.
• After its release the song became a sensation on social media, widely cited as a song about the burnout of people who look strong on the outside.
• The percussion-driven arrangement sounds almost like a musical imitation of the physical weight Luisa actually carries.

A choral number in which each member of the family remembers Bruno in their own way.

• Each character recalls Bruno in a different rhythm and vocal style until, at the end, all the voices blend into one chorus, a structure showing that the fears scattered across the family are ultimately knotted together.
• After its release the song reached number one on the Billboard singles chart, an unusual popular success among Disney animated musical numbers.
• The prophetic images in the song seem to flash by, but they are foreshadowing that will later be reassembled and take on meaning.
• An arrangement that dresses each character in a different genre lets us hear how, even within one family, everyone carries the same memory in their own way.

A song in which Isabela reveals, for the first time, the true self she has held back.

• The passage where Isabela sings for the first time of wild-growing plants instead of perfect flowers expresses, through leaps in the melody, the moment a suppressed self breaks free.
• As the accompaniment grows more lavish and the meter loosens, the music follows step by step as the character breaks free of the rules.
• The passage where the two sisters' voices first build harmony together shows in music the moment misunderstanding turns into understanding.

A lament set at the story's emotional peak, singing of parting and change through the image of caterpillars.

• Sung entirely in Spanish, this lament borrows the image of two caterpillars to sing quietly of parting and change, carrying the feelings that no line of dialogue spells out.
• A fragment of the family-introduction melody heard in the opening returns softly, but the tune that once sounded bright is now slowed and made mournful, turning its meaning inside out.
• Colombian folk strings and winds come to the fore, preserving a regional color rarely heard in a Disney ballad.
• The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and in the film it is sung in Spanish by the Colombian singer Sebastián Yatra.

The finale number sung as the family and the town rebuild the house together.

• A finale in which melodic fragments from many earlier characters are gathered and sung again; the very process of separate voices merging into a single harmony stands in for the story's conclusion.
• The opening introduction song returns transformed, and because this time it sings of the people themselves rather than their gifts, the same melody now means something different.