She wrote it the same day she watched the movie. Now it’s number one, country radio said yes to her instantly, and the Oscars are paying attention. Taylor Swift just found her way back home, and Hollywood noticed.
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Taylor Swift has never been nominated for an Academy Award. That streak might end this year, thanks to a cowgirl doll named Jessie. (Also Read: Taylor Swift shows up at ‘Toy Story 5’ premiere without walking the red carpet)
Swift wrote and produced “I Knew It, I Knew You” for Toy Story 5 with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff. The song plays during the film’s closing credits. It is told from Jessie’s point of view, but the lyrics work on a wider level too. They read like a reunion with an old friend, a lost love, or anyone you thought you’d never see again.
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The song dropped on June 5, ahead of the film’s June 19 release. It did not take long to make an impact. “I Knew It, I Knew You” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. That is Swift’s 15th chart-topper. The milestone pushes her past a tie with Rihanna and Drake for third place on the all-time list of artists with the most Hot 100 number ones. Only the Beatles and Mariah Carey now sit ahead of her.
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Country radio embraced the song just as fast. On June 10, it was added at all 157 stations that report to Mediabase’s country chart, all at once. That kind of instant, unanimous pickup has happened only three times before, and never for a woman. It is a notable moment given that Swift publicly stepped away from being labeled a country artist back in 2015, right before she released “1989.” Disney’s own marketing called the song a return to her country roots, and the label fits. The track leans on banjo, mandolin, harmonica, and saxophone, with a steady bassline running through it and a key change in the bridge.
Swift showed up at the Toy Story 5 world premiere on June 9 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, the same venue that hosts the Oscars each year. She performed “I Knew It, I Knew You” live for the crowd. Then she brought out Randy Newman, the composer who has scored every Toy Story film, for a duet of his original song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” Director Andrew Stanton and producer Lindsey Collins have both said the new song needed no notes. Stanton called it a perfect fit from the first listen, like the song had always belonged in the franchise.
Swift has written songs for movies for almost two decades now, starting with Hannah Montana: The Movie back in 2009. She has picked up Grammys for some of that work. “Safe & Sound,” her song for The Hunger Games, won a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media in 2012. But the Oscars have stayed out of reach.
Her past attempts include “Sweeter Than Fiction” for One Chance, “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” with Zayn for Fifty Shades Darker, and “Beautiful Ghosts,” written with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the much-mocked Cats movie. That one earned a Golden Globe nomination but went no further. Her closest brush with an Oscar nod came with “Carolina,” her song for Where the Crawdads Sing in 2022. It made the Academy’s shortlist of 15 songs but missed the final five nominees.
That is a long run of near misses for someone who has won 14 Grammys and picked up 58 Grammy nominations across her career, including four Album of the Year wins, a record no other artist holds.
The Toy Story franchise carries serious weight with the Academy’s music branch. Every single film in the series has landed at least one Best Original Song nomination. Randy Newman has four of those nominations and one win, spread across the films. Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 both took home Oscars in other categories as well, and Toy Story 3 even broke into the Best Picture race, which is rare for an animated film.
That track record is part of why so much attention shifted toward awards talk almost as soon as the song came out. It also raises a real question. Newman built that pedigree himself, song by song, over five films. Whether his success simply transfers to whoever writes the next Toy Story song, even someone as big as Swift, is not guaranteed.
Still, there is a reasonable argument that this could be her year. The Academy’s music branch has a pattern of nominating, and sometimes rewarding, major pop and R&B artists for original songs written for films. Adele won for “Skyfall.” Lady Gaga won for “Shallow.” Billie Eilish has won twice. Pharrell, Justin Timberlake, and SZA all picked up nominations along the way. Swift fits comfortably into that same group, and arrives with a song that is already a commercial smash, not just a passion project nobody heard.
There is also a quieter, more unusual point in her favor. Country and country-adjacent songs have almost never won Best Original Song. The two clearest examples both date back decades: “Ballad of High Noon” in 1952, and “I’m Easy” from Nashville in 1975. If “I Knew It, I Knew You” goes the distance, it would be one of the rare times a song with real country roots takes the prize.
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