Taylor Swift’s Toy Story 5 track might finally take the popstar to the Oscars, potentially breaking her long-standing Academy Awards curse.
The superstar’s new song, titled I Knew It, I Knew You, marked a massive career milestone on 10 June when it “closed the panel” at country radio.
The song was instantly added to all 157 stations reporting to Mediabase’s country chart, a feat that has only happened three times before and never for a female artist.
It is a particularly remarkable comeback given that Swift publicly declared she was leaving country music behind before releasing her pop album 1989 back in 2015.
Now that she is pushing to get back on those airwaves, the genre’s gatekeepers have cheerfully welcomed her back.
In six to nine months, the industry will see if I Knew It, I Knew You can close a few other panels, specifically the Motion Picture Academy’s music branch. Members will soon vote for the Best Original Song shortlist and the final nominations going into the 2027 Oscars, before the larger voting bloc decides the winners. Fans are already wondering if this humble-sounding country-pop tune can give the world’s most popular entertainer her very first Oscar to go alongside her mountain of Grammys.