Ella Langley has spent most of 2026 watching “Choosin’ Texas” collect increasingly improbable chart records. The latest one left her with a different problem: finding another way to describe what was happening.
The country singer’s breakout hit has now spent 23 total weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving it the longest reign in the chart’s history. The song moved beyond Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which accumulated 22 weeks at the top through repeated holiday returns between 2019 and 2026, according to Billboard.
Langley responded Tuesday with a video from her backyard, where a barking dog occasionally supplied the enthusiasm while she tried to explain her own. She thanked listeners for continuing to play the song and said its success was changing life for her family and the other writers behind it.
“Today doesn’t feel like a real thing,” Langley said. The record arrives almost a year after “Choosin’ Texas” was released and after a chart run that repeatedly put the song in increasingly rare company. Langley planned to celebrate with her team before returning to the road in Knoxville on Sept. 24.
Langley Says She Is ‘Running Out of Hyperboles’
View this post on Instagram
Langley opened her reaction by admitting she was having trouble processing the number. She thanked fans for loving the song and continuing to listen, then said she was “running out of hyperboles” to describe how she felt. Her dog barked repeatedly in the background while she tried to process the news.
The celebration quickly widened beyond her own career. “Choosin’ Texas” was written by Langley, Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor, and Langley said the record was changing the lives of the writers as well as her family. She also talked about the success creating opportunities that could allow her to keep making music for years.
Even then, the number had not quite become believable. Langley joked that somebody could still walk in and announce that the entire thing had been a prank. She said she wanted to stop long enough to enjoy a milestone she never expected to experience, then signed off with one more nod to the song that caused all of it.
‘Choosin’ Texas’ Now Stands Alone at 23 Weeks
The Hot 100 began in August 1958, and no previous song had accumulated 23 weeks at No. 1. Carey’s holiday perennial held the record at 22, while Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, each spent 19 weeks at the summit.
Langley had already been rewriting smaller pieces of that record book on the way there. At 20 weeks, “Choosin’ Texas” became the sole longest-leading non-holiday No. 1 in Hot 100 history. It reached 21 weeks earlier this month before matching Carey at 22 and finally moving ahead with its 23rd frame.
The climb itself took time. “Choosin’ Texas” entered the Hot 100 at No. 39 in November 2025, reached the top 10 in January and first hit No. 1 in February. Its weeks at the summit have not been consecutive, but its ability to leave the top spot and return ultimately became part of the record.
The scale is striking considering where Langley was only a few years earlier. An Associated Press analysis cited Luminate data showing 911 million on-demand U.S. streams and 1.26 billion worldwide by mid-August. The same report noted that Langley had fewer than 1 million monthly Spotify listeners around the beginning of 2023. By this summer, that figure had climbed above 32 million.
The song has been just as difficult to dislodge from country charts. A Sept. 22 release marking the new record listed “Choosin’ Texas” at 41 weeks atop Hot Country Songs, along with 23 weeks leading Streaming Songs and 18 weeks at No. 1 on Digital Song Sales.
A Kangaroo Story Helped Create the Song Behind the Record
The song that eventually pushed past Carey began with a much stranger image than a Billboard chart. Langley was at a writing retreat with Lambert, Dick and Taylor when she asked Lambert about a story involving a kangaroo.
Langley later told PEOPLE that Lambert had once been pulled over with a dog in the back of her vehicle and a kangaroo riding in the passenger seat. Lambert also had Texas plates. Langley responded with a phrase about being able to tell someone was from Texas, and a piece of what became “Choosin’ Texas” was suddenly in the room.
Langley knew the finished song belonged on Dandelion and wanted it to lead the album, but its eventual reach surprised even its writers. The single arrived in October 2025, while Dandelion followed on April 10.
The official music video gave the song’s Texas-versus-Tennessee story a much bigger cast. Langley co-directed the clip with Wales Toney and Caylee Robillard. Luke Grimes plays her boyfriend, Ava Phillippe plays his former sweetheart, and Lambert appears as a saloon singer. Kaitlin Butts, JB Mauney, Wade Bowen and several other country, rodeo and Texas personalities also appear.
The video was shot at the Stagecoach Ballroom in Fort Worth and premiered April 1 on Langley’s official YouTube channel. By this week, it had passed 86 million views, according to a press release cited by PEOPLE.
Langley’s Dandelion Tour is scheduled to stop at Knoxville’s Food City Center on Thursday, Sept. 24, with the show listed for 7 p.m. local time.