A fast-rising Alabama country star’s latest accomplishment has put her among some elite company — Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Faith Hill — and has left Nashville observers wondering if it’s a sign she’s still on her way to bigger things.
For two weeks now, Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has sat at No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. That’s not a country chart: It’s the overall, all-genre pop chart.
Winning Academy of Country Music awards and Country Music Association awards by the handful makes for a splashy coming-out, but it does little to guarantee crossover success. But when Billboard released its newest charts right after the Christmas holidays, Langley turned heads in a whole different way.
She had released “Choosin’ Texas” in October. It’s a heartbreak ballad with a classic feel, sung from the viewpoint of a woman who knows her man’s head has been turned by a romantic rival from the Lone Star state. By early December it had become her first No. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot Country singles chart. It still holds that position.
It rose into the Top 20 on the Hot 100, but sank back as a flood of Christmas songs swamped the chart. When they faded away after the holidays, it shot from No. 48 all the way to No. 5.
This caused some deep thinking at Billboard, which published one story asking “How Rare Is It for a Country Song by a Woman to Reach the Top 10 of the Hot 100?” and another wondering “How Big a Deal for Ella Langley Is ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Making the Hot 100’s Top Five?”
A: It’s pretty rare, and it’s a pretty big deal.
“Dating back to 2000, only 12 women or all-female groups have charted in the Hot 100’s top 10 with a country song, defined as songs eligible for Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart,” reported one of the Billboard stories. “And across the past 26 years, just 26 country songs by women have reached the top tier of the Hot 100.”
That’s 26 out of 1,512 songs that have hit No. 10 or better on the Hot 100 in that time.
“Even with that limited pool, many of the entries come with qualifiers,” continued Billboard’s analysis. “A significant share of recent top 10s were recorded by artists primarily associated with pop music, who crossed into country for a specific release or unique sonic shift — Beyoncé (‘Texas Hold ‘Em’), Chappell Roan (‘The Giver’) and Tate McRae (featured on Morgan Wallen’s ‘What I Want’), to name a few.”
Taylor Swift has nine of those 26 songs, the most recent being “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault).” Beyoncé has three, including her cover of “Jolene.” Faith Hill did it three times in 2000-2001, as did Carrie Underwood in 2005-2009.
“Langley’s recent ascent stands out, as ‘Choosin’ Texas’ marks one of the few Hot 100 top 10s this century by a woman whose career has been rooted squarely in country, rather than propelled by an existing pop audience,” said Billboard. “As a result, her breakthrough underscores both the continued challenges women country artists face on the Hot 100, and how impressive it remains when one breaks through into the top region of the chart.”
“‘Choosin’ Texas’ represents a breakthrough moment for a country artist who may have been a household name in Nashville but was still a largely unknown entity to pop fans and mainstream consumers,” wrote Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz.
“Making the jump from a charting artist who reliably hits the top 40 to one now in contention for the top 10 — or even the top five — is one of the hardest for a mainstream artist to make,” seconded Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger. “For her to do it with a song not yet tied to an album or major viral moment, and one that still feels like it has considerable room to grow, is a very big deal for her career and her future prospects.”
Langley co-wrote the song with Luke Dick, JoyBeth Taylor and Miranda Lambert. It’s the first single from her forthcoming second album, a project that we don’t know much about yet.
“The ‘Choosin’ Texas’ phenomenon is now starting to break out of the country realm into the wide consciousness, and puncture the zeitgeist,” proclaimed a writer at savingcountrymusic.com. “This week, the song went Top 5 in the Billboard Hot 100. That means that a traditional country song about two-stepping and losing your lover is the 5th most popular song in all of music. … We very well could be witnessing the rise of biggest traditional country single in the last 20 years. Zach Top’s ‘I Never Lie’ set the world on fire, but could only rise to #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and #24 on the Hot 100.”
Maxim Mower at country news site Holler was among many to see something classic in the tune.
“The success of ’Choosin‘ Texas’ has been propelled in part by the stellar songwriting – with country icon Miranda Lambert a co-writer – and the nostalgic, ‘90s country feel of the track,” wrote Mower. “As well as, inevitably, the fact that Langley is singing about a love triangle, following widespread speculation regarding a supposed real-life love triangle involving Langley, Green and Megan Moroney. The tongue-in-cheek artwork, which is rumoured to be based on the now-infamous photo of Green and Moroney driving in Alabama, only adds to this lore.”
Mower speculated that a “star-studded remix” might help kick “Choosin’ Texas” into the No. 1 spot. Maybe a version featuring Lambert, or someone with more pop stature, such as Sabrina Carpenter.
Langley has said that she wanted to collaborate with Lambert for years before the opportunity came. She also has recounted that a key phrase in the song came from a bizarre story about Lambert getting pulled over with a pet kangaroo riding shotgun.
Through February, Langley has a series of dates opening for Eric Church. She’ll appear in Tuscaloosa with Morgan Wallen on April 18, when he headlines Bryant-Denny Stadium.
After that, her tour dates include various festivals, including California’s massive Stagecoach fest and one Texas stop on the 2026 Rock the Country tour, plus more dates with Wallen.
