Choosin' Texas

I have seen a few references to a song called “Choosin’ Texas” by an artist named Ella Langley beating out Mariah Carey for the longest-running No. 1 song of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. The surprise in all this is I’ve never heard of Ella Langley or the song that broke the record. I haven’t been into popular music since I was a kid and married to the radio, but I had an awareness of what people were listening to.

John Herreid notes the strange period we are in with respect to popular music.

Moving radio and television to on-demand streaming means there’s no longer a common culture for stuff like this.

Like, in 2005 if you never heard of a #1 hit it was because you were an insufferable elitist hipster. In 2026 it just means you listen to Spotify or similar.

The video and song are full of the self-referential material that themes most country (the tune was co-written by Miranda Lambert at a writing retreat in 2024). Exaggerated accented twangs, territorial regionalism, bars and booze. I've heard stronger hooks in radio friendly chart toppers, but the song has a fairly powerful chorus and the narrative video helps to convey its emotion. Langley is attractive in the glossy way marketable contemporary country music stars often are. In other words, one of the stronger of the typical country songs and presentations, but certainly nothing that takes your breath away and screams this deserves to reign as undisputed champion of the airwaves.

Ella Langley - Choosin' Texas (YouTube)