Taylor Swift’s country push
– 3 min read
As expected, yesterday’s countdown on Taylor Swift’s website was the official confirmation of her involvement in Toy Story 5.
The song is called “I Knew It, I Knew You” and as we saw in the visuals, it’s connected to cowgirl Jessie so, naturally, this will be a country track, dropping on Friday.
Toy Story 5 will be about our beloved toys trying to remain in Bonnie’s life even as kids are becoming more and more attached to devices. Jessie seems to be the one taking charge, literally and figuratively, in the fight for relevance – and, more importantly, in the fight to remain connected to Bonnie and maintain their bond. I CAN’T EVEN WRITE THAT WITHOUT WANTING TO CRY. Why are these movies so traumatising???
Toy Story with Jessie in the lead role partnering with Taylor Swift makes all the sense. And since this is Taylor Swift, this is exactly the kind of publicity and marketing the studio wants to drive awareness and engagement. There is never not mega hype and anticipation around Taylor Swift’s music – and since it’s been a minute since she’s been in her country bag, there’s some intrigue here too.
One of my longtime sources who works in country music told me today that Taylor’s label has been actively engaging with country radio, bringing in programmers and radio personalities for an exclusive preview of the track and to spend time talking to her about it, which is not uncommon practice in the genre but certainly uncommon in 2026 for Taylor Swift who pivoted to pop 12 years ago. The effort tells us that she’s targeting radio play, and specifically country radio play, and therefore the country charts.
What makes this extra interesting is that “I Knew It, I Knew You” is coming at a time when there’s been one monster country song that’s been dominating all the charts for months: Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas”, the longest-running Billboard Hot 100 #1 by a female country artist ever, breaking a record that was previously held by… Taylor Swift with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”.
What else happened today…
In other Taylor Swift gossip – are she and Keleigh and Miles Teller still friends? Keleigh was part of lip-reading-gate at the Golden Globes that year with Selena Gomez. So in that sense she’ll always have a place in the lore. (Celebitchy)
Olivia Munn returned to The Daily Show and it was like no time has passed. She’s really good. And too many people are still too mad about, you know, to ever notice. (Pajiba)
I will never, ever complain about Janelle Monae in Thom Browne, or anyone in Thom Browne really, even though probably everyone else hates this outfit. But it’s so cute! (Go Fug Yourself)
Nicholas Hoult is in a movie in which he plays a thief with a lot of smudged black eyeliner and Pete Davidson is in it too but let’s go back to the part where Nicholas plays a thief in black eyeliner, looking so hot, I am SOLD! (The Mary Sue)
Tom Holland is the latest guest on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast and, probably, the headlines that will get the most play will involve Zendaya and what he has to say about her. But I really love what he shared with Amy about why he turned down hosting Saturday Night Live and how having dyslexia affects certain parts of his work. He is candid and vulnerable but he has a purpose – the reason he’s so honest about it is because he knows he could reach someone else who might have the same experiences and if they’re hearing or reading about it, they won’t feel so alone. (The Wrap)
