Taylor SwiftArtist profile →
Taylor Swift spent a weekend leaving cartoon clouds on billboards, then showed up with a cowgirl. On Monday (June 1), she announced “I Knew It, I Knew You,” an original song for Pixar’s Toy Story 5, out Friday, June 5, two weeks before the film reaches cinemas.
She wrote and produced it with Jack Antonoff, who Variety notes last worked with her on The Tortured Poets Department. Disney is calling it a return to her country roots, and says it was inspired by Jessie’s “ongoing journey in ‘Toy Story 5’ that began back in ‘Toy Story 2.’” Swift said the idea hit her straight after a screening.
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.
Taylor Swift, Billboard
The rollout was pure Swift. “TS” billboards, a play on both sets of initials, appeared over the weekend in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Toronto, Mexico City and London, according to Disney. Fans counted 13 clouds in the design, a nod to her lucky number. Monday’s countdown on her website then showed Jessie dancing on a barn roof at the ranch house that, per Variety, is the character’s old home and a key setting in the film.
Read moreTaylor Swift, SZA and Phoebe Bridgers: The 2027 Best Original Song Race, Explained
The film’s own director played it coy. In a video interview published days earlier, director Andrew Stanton said the Swift chatter “surprised us,” then dropped a clue: “The sad truth is, we watched the movie being mixed last week, done, and the song on the end of that was not Taylor Swift’s song.” Her song, in other words, lives somewhere else in the film.
For the toys, this is a long way from the backyard. Toy Story 5 pits Woody, Buzz and Jessie against Lilypad, a tablet voiced by Greta Lee. Watch the official trailer below.
Stanton, who directed the film, said in a statement that Swift’s connection to Jessie “and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable.” He added that on first listen the song “instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member.”
The awards math is already being done. Billboard points out that this could bring Swift her first Oscar nomination for best original song, in a franchise where Randy Newman was nominated for songs from each of the first four films and won in 2011 for “We Belong Together.” Newman is back to score the fifth. We’ve since broken down where the Best Original Song race stands.
Swift’s webstore is selling CD singles of the film version plus acoustic and piano versions, and those ship June 19, the day the film opens (previews are June 18). The soundtrack album arrives the same day.
- Song
- “I Knew It, I Knew You”
- Written and produced by
- Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff
- Single
- June 5, 2026, on streaming platforms
- Film
- *Toy Story 5*, in cinemas June 19 (previews June 18)
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
