Released by Walt Disney Records as part of the film's soundtrack on November 19, 2021, the song was written by American musician Lin-Manuel Miranda and performed by Colombian singer-songwriter Sebastián Yatra.

The song is played in the film over a flashback depicting the life and death of Pedro Madrigal, the grandfather of Encanto's protagonist Mirabel.

Commercially, "Dos Oruguitas" entered the top 40 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and marked Yatra's first-ever appearance on the chart.

[5] His goal was to write a Colombian folk song that "felt like it [had] always existed," which he thought would make the painful family history depicted in the accompanying animated sequence easier to watch.

[6][7][8] Co-director Byron Howard said about the song: "It's probably the most critical bit of musical storytelling in the whole film because it has to do with the history of the family and Mirabel understanding her grandmother.

"[11] /Film critic Caroline Cao ranked it as the second-best song, describing it as "an elegy that honors what's been lost, even as it emboldens the survivors to find their way forward, carrying on those memories".