On June 10, Taylor Swift marked another small career milestone when her “Toy Story 5” song “I Knew It, I Knew You” “closed the panel” at country radio, getting instantly added at all 157 stations that report to Mediabase’s country chart — something that’s only occurred three times before, and never for a female artist. It was significant especially because Swift publicly declared herself no longer a country artist prior to releasing “1989” in 2015. Now she was pushing to get on those stations again, and genre gatekeepers cheerfully reopened the door. We didn’t just get a reunion between the Jessie doll and her owner … we got one between Taylor and twang.
In six to nine months, we’ll see whether “I Knew It, I Knew You” can close a couple other panels. Namely, the Motion Picture Academy’s music branch, whose members will vote for a best original song shortlist and final nominations going into the 2027 Oscars, followed by the bigger voting bloc that will decide next year’s Academy Awards. Can a humble-sounding country-pop tune finally give the woman who is arguably the world’s most popular entertainer an Oscar to go with all her Grammy gold? (Along with one for co-writer-producer Jack Antonoff?) Academy members may not have this front of mind yet, but half the Swifties in the world do.
