Two days after Taylor Swift confirmed she had written a new song for the “Toy Story 5″ soundtrack, the Deseret News was chatting with Sarah McLachlan, the ethereal voice behind the tearjerker “When She Loved Me” from “Toy Story 2″ that reveals the cowgirl Jessie’s backstory of being outgrown by her owner.
McLachlan — a Swift fan who attended the singer’s Eras tour with her daughters — hadn’t yet heard the news.
“I live under a rock,” she said as she found out about the new song during a Zoom call with the Deseret News in early June. “But that makes perfect sense.”
Swift, who earlier this year was recognized by The New York Times as one of the greatest living songwriters, recently became the youngest female artist to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her contribution to “Toy Story 5” marks her 13th time writing a song for a film, as the Deseret News reported.
The official music video for the song, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” already has more than 7 million views on YouTube.
Ahead of the film’s release on Friday, McLachlan briefly reflected on her own “Toy Story” moment and shared high praise for Swift.
Sarah McLachlan on Pixar films: ‘They really know how to get you’
McLachlan, the writer and vocalist behind tender and career-defining songs like “Angel” and “I Will Remember You,” said she considers Randy Newman’s “When She Loved Me” — which was nominated for best original song at the 2000 Oscars — to be “one of the most beautiful songs ever written.”
“That was a great time,” she recalled. “I got to meet Randy Newman and hang out with him and perform with him at the Oscars, which was wild to be in that world. ... I love Randy Newman, he’s just got such a gift. And when you match a song like that to visuals, to Jessie’s sadness and loss, you’re just like, ‘Oh!’ I mean, Pixar does it brilliantly.”
That belief was further cemented years later, when McLachlan took her two daughters and one of her best friends to see the Pixar movie “Up.”
The emotional opening montage of that film, which shows the ups and downs of the lifetime relationship between Carl and his wife, Ellie, had McLachlan and her friend in tears.
“We’re gutted, we’re ugly crying. And my daughters are looking at me like, ‘What is wrong with you?’” McLachlan said with a laugh. “They really know how to get you.”
Sarah McLachlan praises Taylor Swift
McLachlan also reflected on the influence of Lilith Fair, her groundbreaking all-women music festival in the late 1990s that was the subject of a documentary last year.
“It challenged a lot of norms, and I guess mostly I’m incredibly proud of everything we achieved, of the community that was built,” she said, noting that several female artists today like Swift and Brandi Carlile are keeping the spirit of that festival alive.
“A lot of different artists are doing this, just again lifting each other up, supporting each other. Taylor Swift, in this stratosphere of success that she has had, she’s always finding a whole bunch of mostly women artists, and having them open up for her and essentially launching a whole lot of careers.”
Later this summer, McLachlan will embark on her “Better Broken” tour with special guest Allison Russell. The tour — which visits Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre on July 30 — is in support of her first album of original music in 11 years.