Cover for Taylor Swift’s new song
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Taylor Swift has written and recorded an original song for Toy Story 5, titled “I Knew It, I Knew You,” releasing June 5. The track is inspired by Jessie, the cowgirl character voiced by Joan Cusack across the franchise. “I Knew It, I Knew You” is her first original song written and released in a country register since her formal genre transition to pop in 2014, more than a decade ago.
What Taylor Swift Said About The Song
Swift made the announcement across her social media platforms with a dad joke referencing her 2008 hit “Love Story”, writing “It’s a Toy Story.” “You knew it! My new original song ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ for Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5 will be yours on June 5th,” she wrote.
“I’ve always dreamed of getting to write for these characters who I’ve adored since I was a 5 year old kid watching the first Toy Story movie. I fell instantly in love with Toy Story 5 when I was lucky enough to see it in its early stages, and I wrote this song as soon as I got home from the screening. Sometimes you just know, right?”
Director Andrew Stanton described the track in a public statement, “Her connection to Jessie and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable. The song is so deeply connected to Toy Story. So much so that on first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member. It was kismet.”
Why This Is A Country Return
The song is described in Disney’s official press release as inspired by Jessie’s journey as a “rootin’ tootin’ cowgirl. The track also reunites Swift with her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, who did not work on her 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl.
That album, released in 2025, became her 15th number one on the Billboard 200 and the fastest-selling album in US history, selling more than four million units in its first week.
Swift’s last sustained engagement with country music predates her pop crossover; she departed the genre formally around the time of 1989’s release in 2014. “I Knew It, I Knew You” is therefore her most direct return to the sound that launched her career in over a decade.
How Taylor Swift’s Involvement Was Confirmed
Billboard teasing Swift’s song for Toy Story 5.
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The path to the announcement involved a 48-hour countdown on Swift’s official website on April 30, filled with blue skies and Toy Story-style animated clouds. Director Andrew Stanton and several producers subsequently denied Swift’s involvement in interviews, with Stanton saying the end credits song in their most recent cut was not hers.
On May 29, a Toy Story-themed billboard appeared bearing only the initials “TS” and containing exactly 13 clouds (Swift’s well-documented lucky number) and over the following weekend Disney and Swift released a cascade of Easter eggs including cloud additions to her 1989 album cover on streaming platforms and the capitalisation of the letters T and S in the lyrics of all of Swift’s Track 5s.
The official announcement followed on June 1.
How To Get The Song
Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” releases June 5. Collector’s edition CDs including piano and acoustic versions with new vocals are available for pre-order on Swift’s official web store. Toy Story 5 arrives in cinemas June 19.