Taylor Swift Pens Original Song for ‘Toy Story 5’ Soundtrack: ‘I’ve Always Dreamed of Getting to Write for These Characters’
The film will hit theatres later in June.
Taylor Swift
The Toy Story franchise has got a friend in Taylor Swift. The singer announced Monday (June 1) that she’ll be contributing an original song titled “I Knew It, I Knew You” to the soundtrack for the beloved animated film series’ upcoming fifth installment.
With physical copies of the track now available for purchase on Swift’s website, as well as an acoustic and piano version, the hitmaker revealed that “I Knew It, I Knew You” will drop June 19, the same day Toy Story 5 hits theaters. In an Instagram post sharing the news with fans, 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,” she continued, captioning a whimsical photo of herself lying in the grass among a bunch of pink and yellow tulips. “Sometimes you just know, right?”
The official announcement comes at the end of a Toy Story-themed countdown on Swift’s website that went live a few hours prior, featuring the franchise’s leading lady Jessie waving in the bottom corner in her cowgirl gear. The animated graphic also featured a “TS” billboard in the distance, matching the real-life blue-and-yellow signs that have gone up in different locations around the world in recent days.
Pixar had been teasing Swift’s involvement prior to the announcement as well, sharing pictures of the billboards — which eagle-eyed fans noticed had exactly 13 clouds in the design, a nod to the 14-time Grammy winner’s lucky number — as well as a video of Jessie dancing next to one of the signs.
“She’s making those moves up as she goes!” the May 30 post’s caption read, referencing the lyrics to Swift’s Billboard Hot 100-topper “Shake It Off.”
Toy Story 5 will feature Tom Hanks and Tim Allen reprising their respective roles of Woody and Buzz Lightyear. The plot will follow the iconic group of toys as they compete for playtime against a new tablet called Lilypad.
Swift last participated in an animated children’s feature in 2012, voicing Audrey in The Lorax. She’s also contributed a number of songs to movie soundtracks over the years, from 2013’s “Sweeter Than Fiction” for David Frankel’s One Chance to 2022’s “Carolina” for Olivia Newman’s Where the Crawdads Sing.
Her most recent album, last fall’s The Life of a Showgirl, spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It spawned Swift’s longest-running Hot 100 No. 1 hit to date, with lead single “The Fate of Ophelia” topping the chart for 10 weeks.
