Taylor Swift’s country radio drought just ended with a historic comeback. According to PEOPLE, the singer-songwriter’s “I Knew It, I Knew You,” a song from “Toy Story 5,” reached No. 1 on Mediabase’s country radio chart for the Aug. 30-Sept. 6 tracking period. This marks Swift’s 14th career country radio No. 1 and her 13th as a solo artist. It is an achievement she had not pulled off in 13 years, since she topped the chart in 2013 with her Tim McGraw duet, “Highway Don’t Care.”
‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ Was Already Making Chart History
Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” was already making history long before it reached No. 1. It debuted inside Billboard’s Country Airplay top 10 in June, becoming the first song by a woman to debut in that tier since the chart launched in January 1990. Garth Brooks previously accomplished the feat with “More Than a Memory,” which debuted at No. 1 on the chart in 2007.
The song entered Country Airplay at No. 8 with 19.4 million audience impressions during its opening week. It also became Swift’s 19th top 10 on that chart and her first since “Red” reached No. 7 in December 2013, shortly before she made her major move into pop music with “1989.”
“I Knew It, I Knew You” was written and produced by Swift and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff and released on June 5 as an original song for the fifth installment in the “Toy Story” franchise.
The song has not only found success at country radio; it also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for its first two weeks. It topped singles charts in the U.K., Canada, Australia and Germany and became the most-streamed country song in a single day by a female artist on Spotify upon its release.
Taylor Swift’s ‘Toy Story 5’ Song Brings Her Back to Her Roots
Taylor Swift’s country radio takeover carries extra significance because her career began in country music. The singer-songwriter got her start in Nashville nearly two decades ago, and “I Knew It, I Knew You” was deliberately fashioned in a way that echoed those country roots.
The song has country radio programmers talking about her again. Some have described her return as an easy call, with one telling Billboard, “She started here, and you can always come home,” while pointing out that there is an entire generation of Swifties who have no idea she was once a country music star.
Swift herself has echoed similar sentiments. In June, Billboard reported that she wrote on Instagram that creating the track for Jessie, the “Toy Story” character who inspired it, “felt like a musical departure and coming home at the same time.”
Her connection with country radio also became particularly timely just before the song reached No. 1. On Sept. 5, Swift appeared in prerecorded segments on country radio, where she discussed the song’s lyrics and how she and Antonoff approached creating music for the “Toy Story” universe.
Swift also explained that some of the song’s lyrics were deliberately written to carry more than one meaning, giving fans another layer to explore as the track continued its run. It has been almost two decades since Swift first arrived in Nashville, but “I Knew It, I Knew You” has brought her full circle to No. 1 in the genre where it all began.
