No challenge, it would seem, is too great for Taylor Swift. By recording “I Knew It, I Knew You” for Toy Story 5, her latest project was a love story a lifetime in the making. No pressure, right?
In recent days, Swift dotted a trail with Toy Story 5 easter eggs, and confirmed what super-fans knew all along with the release at midnight of the original song “I Knew It, I Knew You.”
The track will appear in the latest addition of the beloved animated franchise, and is something of a dream come true. If proof were needed, she shared an adorable video of herself as a youngster, dressed as cowgirl Jessie, who lassoed us all in at the start of her journey back in Toy Story 2.
“Writing this song felt like a musical departure and coming home at the same time,” Swift writes in a social post. “Creating something for Jessie was a new challenge and also felt like second nature all at once. And being a Toy Story kid from the age of 5 til now… is an adventure I plan to be on, to infinity and beyond.”
Swift gave a shout out to the “brilliant” Toy Story co-writer Andrew Stanton “for imagining me for this, all those years ago when you wrote this newest film.” And gave a thank-you to “the incomparable” Randy Newman for “the gorgeous sonic tapestry of songs and scores you’ve meticulously woven over the years.” Newman, she continued, “created the Toy Story musical world, and we are lucky to get to live in it.”
The “we” includes Swift and her frequent collaborator, producer and “pal” Jack Antonoff, who worked on the single, which she previously revealed was “inspired by the rootin’ tootin’” Jessie.
“We wrote this with so much adoration for these characters that made us laugh and helped us learn lessons and think outside the backyard all throughout our childhoods,” she says of her latest work.
“I Knew It, I Knew You” is Swift’s first release since her hit 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl, and arrives ahead of the movie’s June 19 release, through Disney and Pixar.
