Taylor Swift Made Sure She Wouldn’t Replace Someone Else Before Agreeing to Write ‘Toy Story 5’ End Credits Song

Taylor Swift said she wanted to write a song for Toy Story 5 as soon as she saw the film, but first wanted to make sure she wasn’t replacing another artist on the project.

Swift discussed writing the end-credits song “I Knew It, I Knew You” with director Andrew Stanton during a Q&A after a special screening on Sunday, Nov. 1. The song went on to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

When Swift’s involvement was announced in June, some fans were confused about why she had gotten the job instead of Randy Newman, who had written original music for the Toy Story franchise since it began in 1995. Stanton said he had wanted a change from the beginning of production on Toy Story 5 and had only considered Swift to follow Newman. “Nothing else made sense,” he said.

Swift was initially unavailable to discuss the film because of her Eras Tour. Stanton said he did not approach other artists and instead decided the film would have no original end-credits song. When Swift later became available, she had trouble believing no one else had been asked.

“I was repeatedly asking, ‘I know that it took me a couple months to come back to this project. Be honest: Did you guys replace me?’” she recalled. “‘I don’t want to kick somebody off of this project that you reached out to after [me],’” she added. “‘I understand, but I’m not in the business of doing that.’”

Swift previously said she went to the studio with Jack Antonoff immediately after an early screening and finished “I Knew It, I Knew You” within hours, before the day was over. She later performed it with Newman at the film’s Hollywood premiere.

Stanton first heard the song a few days after Swift finished it. “I got choked up when I heard it,” he recalled. “The only other time I’ve heard a song that just dropped from thin air and was perfect was when Randy Newman came in and played ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ on piano.”

“I Knew It, I Knew You” has drawn Oscar buzz for best original song at next year’s awards. Swift, a 14-time Grammy winner, has performed it as part of her campaign for a nomination at the Academy Museum Gala in mid-October and a Grammys Icon Session in August.

During the Q&A, Swift said her brother, Austin Swift, first brought Toy Story 5 to her attention. She also said the film reminded her of her friendship with Abigail Anderson.

“My brother does all my music synchs,” Swift said. “Sometimes we talk like siblings, and then sometimes we have business conversations that are like half sibling, half business. He calls me up and he’s like, ‘I really think you need to see the new Toy Story 5. You’re gonna love it.’”

“I was like, ‘Why?’ He’s like, ‘I signed an NDA, Taylor. I can’t tell you why, which is when we flip into sibling [mode],’” she continued. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, you can’t tell me why? You signed an NDA?’”

Swift said the characters Bonnie and Blaze helped her relate to the film. “When I moved to Nashville when I was 14, you know, you’re the new kid in school and you’re like, ‘Who should I be friends with?’” she said. “There was one girl named Abigail — and she even has curly hair, too, like Blaze — and the two of us, all we wanted to do was talk in Napoleon Dynamite voices. We still do this, and it’s something our husbands have to put up with … when you find that person who just completely sees you for the strange, little genre that is you at your purest, that hit me so hard watching the film.”

Source: Billboard