Taylor Swift made an appearance at the Toy Story 5 premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 10th, delivering a surprise performance of her original soundtrack song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” as well as a duet of the classic “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” with Disney legend Randy Newman.
The Oscar-baiting-contending original was released in three versions — countrified original, acoustic, and piano — and it was the keys-led latter rendition Swift sang at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. After giving the song its live debut, Swift then gave a short speech about joining the beloved Toy Story franchise.
“It means the world to me to be a small part of the universe of these films, and Toy Story 5 is my favorite of all the Toy Stories,” she began, thanking to Pixar creators for the “beautiful… masterpiece” of a movie. She also specifically shouted out Joan Cusack’s performance as Jessie, saying “it was an honor to write for her.”
She thanked directors Andrew Stanton and McKenna Harris for inviting her onto the project, and went on to say, “I’m also lucky enough to be here because of someone else, who is the architect of the Toy Story musical universe. He is the king of making us feel the absolute most and pulling at our heartstrings and making us laugh. Making us like he’s one of our friends, you know what I mean? I’m talking about Randy Newman.”
Newman was then rolled out on his own piano, and the two went into a sweet duet of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” Newman complimented her for writing “one hell of a song,” and then the two began trading verses. On the Swift-sung line, “Some folks might be a little bit smarter than I am,” Newman joked, “Nobody’s smarter than you.”
Watch both performances below. Toy Story 5 releases wide on June 19th.
Taylor Swift sings “I Knew It, I Knew You” and “You Got A Friend in Me” with Randy Newman at the Toy Story 5 premiere. #ToyStory5 pic.twitter.com/deuAwUjONr
— Scott Menzel (@ScottDMenzel) June 10, 2026
🚨Taylor Swift performing ‘You've Got A Friend in Me’ with Randy Newman! pic.twitter.com/H6eNo3YkrD
— Taylor Swift Updates (@TSUpdating) June 10, 2026
