Songfacts®:

• This is the opening song in the Disney computer-animated film Encanto. The movie tells the story of the Colombian Madrigal family, who except for the youngest daughter Mirabel, all have magical gifts. Mirabel (voiced by Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress Stephanie Beatriz) primarily sings this sometimes frenetic song, during which she introduces the Family Madrigal and their unique magical powers.
• Actor and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the song. He took inspiration from "Belle," the operetta-style opening number of Beauty And The Beast that introduces the two leading characters. "We wanted to get the complexity of a family on screen," Miranda told The Los Angeles Times. "And that means getting our arms around them, not letting them get winnowed away in the story process where you tend to focus on the main character and their quest. We have to be super clear about who it is, how they're related, what they can do, and how that relates to our main character."
• Miranda wrote "The Family Madrigal" very early in the development process of Encanto - long before the script writers had planned the ending. "I wrote that opening number before we had a second act or a third act to our film, because we needed it for ourselves to keep track of everybody," Miranda said in a press conference. "And these names may change and the powers may change, but we know the audience is gonna need a guide, and Mirabel's gonna be our guide, so let's write that song early."
• The song becomes fast and distorted when some children ask Mirabel what her magical gift is. She becomes uncomfortable and speeds up her singing as she tries to escape their questions.
  
  Miranda's music is renowned for its quick pace. "I think the most challenging thing sometimes is to figure out where to breathe in his songs because the way that they're structured is not necessarily... You got to plan it out," Beatriz told Slashfilm. "You got to literally plan out 'Okay. On this eighth note or whatever I've got to...' So that I'm ready for the next big chunk of it."
  
  Mirabel's singing in "The Family Madrigal" is thought to be the fastest in Disney history.