Taylor Swift loves an Easter egg hunt, and finally, the mystery is over.
After weeks of increasingly unsubtle hints, Swift has confirmed she is behind an original song for Toy Story 5. Titled I Knew It, I Knew You, the track arrives this Friday and marks her first new music since 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl.
“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,” she wrote on Instagram.
Swift revealed she penned the song immediately after watching an early cut of the film.
“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 added. “Sometimes you just know, right?”
As it turns out, Swifties knew too.
For more than a month, fans had been convinced Swift was somehow involved in the upcoming sequel. While neither Disney nor Swift addressed the rumours directly, the clues continued to pile up.
It all started when a mysterious countdown appeared on Swift’s website against a cloud-filled backdrop that fans immediately compared to Andy’s bedroom wallpaper from the Toy Story films. The countdown disappeared as quickly as it arrived, seemingly leading nowhere. But as any Swift fan will tell you, there are very few coincidences in Swift-land.
The theory gained fresh momentum when billboards emblazoned with the letters “TS” in the unmistakable Toy Story font began appearing internationally. Technically, the initials could stand for either Taylor Swift or Toy Story, giving Disney and Pixar a degree of plausible deniability.
Less easily explained, however, were the 13 cartoon clouds scattered across the advertisements. Given the number’s close association with Swift, fans immediately interpreted them as another Easter egg.
Pixar only added fuel to the fire by sharing the billboard on social media alongside a lyric from Swift’s 2014 hit Shake It Off: “She’s making those moves up as she goes.”
The line appeared to reference the lyric, “I’m dancin’ on my own / I make the moves up as I go.”
Meanwhile, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the seagulls on the cover of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) had been replaced with clouds on streaming platforms, sending speculation into overdrive.
Disney has since revealed that the song is inspired by Jessie’s storyline in the film and described it as “a return to Taylor Swift’s country roots.”
The track was co-written and co-produced by Swift and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, marking their first original release together since The Tortured Poets Department. Fans eager to hear multiple versions won’t have to wait long either, with acoustic and piano editions of the song also available.
Writer-director Andrew Stanton praised Swift’s contribution, saying her connection to Jessie was immediate.
“Her connection to Jessie and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable,” Stanton said. “The song is so deeply connected to Toy Story. On first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there.”
Whether I Knew It, I Knew You is Swift’s only contribution to Toy Story 5 remains to be seen. The song arrives on June 5, ahead of the film’s Australian release on June 19.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
