Following the success of her latest album The Life of a Showgirl, 14-time Grammy Award-winning artist Taylor Swift announced a new original song, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” for Disney and Pixar’s upcoming theatrical release Toy Story 5.
The announcement was teased through a digital countdown that appeared across Swift’s webstore and a Times Square billboard, turning June 1 into a fan-focused global moment.
Swift confirmed the collaboration via a countdown clock on her website, which featured Jessie riding a horse and dancing. The reveal teased that Toy Story-related news was imminent.
She later wrote in her Instagram post to fans alongside a cowboy hat emoji, “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. 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. 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?”
Song and its creative roots
The song — written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff — was released on June 5 across streaming and digital platforms. It also appears on the Toy Story 5 soundtrack, which will drop alongside the film on June 19.
Inspired by Jessie’s storyline in Toy Story 5, which continues from Toy Story 2, “I Knew It, I Knew You” marks a return to Swift’s country roots while blending elements that reflect her broader musical evolution.
In the track, Swift sings about reconnecting with someone or something from her past, backed by harmonica and a subtle country twang. The chorus runs, “And I remembered I loved you / Came back when it mattered, I saw you / Standing there in the light of the window wearing that same smile / Man, it’s been a while / But I knew it, I knew you.”
The song explores the emotional pull of reconnection, whether with a friend, romantic partner or childhood memory. It opens with a vivid line about “a daze of the blades of the grass in the summer,” continuing Swift’s signature imagery-driven style. With a country-meets-electropop sound, it reflects the shifting emotions tied to time and relationships.
Swift wrote on Instagram alongside a video of herself as a child in a cowgirl hat and boots, “Writing this song felt like a musical departure and coming home at the same time. Creating something for Jessie was a new challenge and also felt like second nature all at once.” She added, “By we, I mean myself and my pal Jack Antonoff. 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 also paid tribute to longtime Toy Story composer Randy Newman in a June 5 Instagram post, writing, “You created the Toy Story musical world and we are lucky to get to live in it.”
