Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas," a simmering, midtempo, country-and-then-some heartbreak song released last October, is indisputably 2026's biggest hit. "Choosin' Texas" is also the longest-running No. 1 hit in the US, having spent 23 weeks at the top spot on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, it was announced Tuesday. That means the track has surpassed various records set by Shaboozey's "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," and most impressively, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You," the AP reports. Her holiday classic held the previous record, with 22 weeks at No. 1.
The song's laid-back sound, cross-genre appeal and heartache narrative are a few reasons why. But its dominance still comes as a surprise.
- Luminate, the industry data and analytics company, found that "Choosin' Texas" brought in 911 million on-demand streams in the US and 1.26 billion globally as of mid-August. Considering that Langley started 2023, around the time she made her Grand Ole Opry debut, with under 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify—and now boasts of over 32 million—her rise has been meteoric.
- Claire Heinichen, a senior editor at Spotify, says the song's growth has been both explosive and consistent. The song "started big," she says, moving from the platform's leading country playlist, "Hot Country," to its larger, generic offerings because it works across audiences. "It made its way into 'Today's Top Hits,' which is our biggest global flagship playlist, but it's also showing up in 'Mood' and 'Moments' playlists because it fits so well in 'driving' or 'chill' or 'cookout,'" Heinichen says. "It really can work everywhere."
- Go straight to Langley's voice for another explanation for the song's success. It's "like syrup," says Nate Sloan, a musicologist, assistant professor at the University of Southern California, and co-host of the podcast Switched On Pop. She sings in long phrases that lull the listener into the song's rhythm, from its opening guitar line to its coda. "It's almost like a trance," Sloan says.
- Charles L. Hughes, a Rhodes College professor and author of Country Soul, says the song sounds like many different eras of country music and, simultaneously, contemporary. "The best country music has one foot in the past and one foot into the present, if not the future," Hughes says. "And that's what she's doing."
- What does the future hold for Langley? She's no one-hit wonder: Her award-winning 2024 collaboration with Riley Green, "You Look Like You Love Me" is evidence of that. "It's always hard to prognosticate with artists when they have an unexpected smash," says Sloan. "Her ability to write songs with a lot of integrity that both reach back into country tradition and incorporate sounds of the 21st century? That's a pretty good formula to have a successful and long career in the music world."
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