Taylor Swift's 'Toy Story 5' song is a return to pop country

Taylor Swift appears at the MTV Video Music Awards in Elmont, N.Y., on Sept. 11, 2024. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK — Taylor Swift’s new song for the Disney and Pixar’s forthcoming “Toy Story 5” film is here. On Friday, Swift released “I Knew It, I Knew You,” a bit of a return to country music for the performer who first made a name for herself in the Nashville music scene before taking over the world.

Here’s everything you need to know about “I Knew It, I Knew You.”

Taylor Swift goes country ... again

Swift doesn’t sing with a familiar twang on “I Knew It, I Knew You,” but no matter — the song features some elements inextricable from the country genre: Live instrumentation, plucky banjo and harmonica that opens the track.

Most view Swift’s last official foray into the country music genre to be 2012’s “Red,” though the album is much more of a crossover experiment. It would be more astute to label “Speak Now” as her last true-blue, full-length, country music release — and that was more than 15 years ago.

Additionally: “I Knew It, I Knew You” is also Swift’s first original material since “The Life of a Showgirl” was released in October.

The song is also co-produced by Jack Antonoff, her former, frequent collaborator. Swift started working with Antonoff on 2014’s “1989” through 2024’s “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Notably, the pair started their long collaboration after Swift’s country era, perhaps with the rare exception of “Betty” from her 2020 “Folklore” album.

“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,” Swift wrote on social media Friday, referencing the beloved cowgirl character. “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.”

The ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ rollout

Last weekend, billboards with the initials “TS,” stylized like the “Toy Story” logo, appeared in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Toronto, Mexico City and London — fitting, as “TS” works both for the beloved franchise and the musician.

On Monday, Swift confirmed the song was forthcoming, writing on Instagram, “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. Sometimes you just know, right?”

She also shared that preorders for three CD single versions of the track were available on her site. They quickly sold out: One features the song as it appears in the film, another is an acoustic version and the last is a piano version.

“It’s incredible just how meaningful it’s been having Taylor write and perform this song. Her connection to Jessie and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable,” “Toy Story 5” director and writer Andrew Stanton said in a press statement at the time. “The song is so deeply connected to ‘Toy Story.’ So much so that on first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member. It was kismet.”

Is Taylor Swift headed to the Oscars?

Some fans online have begun speculating: Could this be an Oscar contender in the original song category?

Quite possibly, if it adheres to all relevant rules and regulations! For 2027 Academy Awards consideration, a feature film — and its song submissions — must have a qualifying theatrical release between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 this year. “Toy Story 5” will be released in theaters worldwide on June 19, so it qualifies there.

It also depends on when “I Knew It, I Knew You” is placed in “Toy Story 5.” There’s a new rule this year: If the song plays over the end credits, it must also overlap with the last 15 seconds of the film before the credits actually begin.

At any rate, if Swift’s song is submitted — and if she were to win — she’d be just that much closer to an EGOT. She has 14 Grammys and an Emmy. An Oscar would mean she’d only need a Tony. Could Broadway be next?

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press