“It doesn’t feel like a real thing. It feels fake.”
Ella Langley said that in an Instagram video in September. It was the week “Choosin’ Texas” passed Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” as the longest-running No. 1 song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. She looked a little stunned by it all. “Somebody’s going to come in and be like, ha ha, we’re kidding the whole time,” she joked.
Nobody was kidding, and seven weeks later the song is still up there. On Monday, Nov. 9, “Choosin’ Texas” was No. 1 on the Hot 100 for a 27th week. Whiskey Riff reports it drew 18.8 million streams that week and finished ahead of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which came back onto the chart at No. 2.
For anyone just catching up, Ella is a 27-year-old singer from Alabama. She wrote “Choosin’ Texas” with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and JoyBeth Taylor. The song came out in October 2025. It first reached No. 1 in February. Her second album, “Dandelion,” followed in April and opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
She heads into the 60th CMA Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 18, with nine nominations, the most of anyone this year. Lainey Wilson hosts the show at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
In that same September video, Ella talked about who the song has helped. “It’s changing my life. It’s changing lives of the writers of this song. It’s changing lives of my family,” she said.
The run has had a few bumps. In October, Taylor Swift’s “Patient Zero” held the top spot for three weeks. Then “Choosin’ Texas” climbed right back, and it has now been No. 1 for three weeks in a row.
That 27th week is where Mariah comes back into the story.
In 1995, Mariah released an album called “Daydream.” Three of its songs went to No. 1 on the Hot 100. “Fantasy” stayed there for eight weeks. “One Sweet Day,” her duet with Boyz II Men, stayed for 16. “Always Be My Baby” added two more. Put them together and “Daydream” gave Mariah 26 weeks at No. 1 from one album.
No album by a woman had ever done better, according to the chart trackers Whiskey Riff quoted on Nov. 10. The mark reportedly stood for 30 years. “Dandelion” now has 27 weeks.
How she got there is the part that has chart watchers talking. Mariah needed three hit songs to reach her 26 weeks. Ella passed her with one.
Ella had a feeling about that one song early on. Billboard sat down with her for a short video, and the line the magazine put on the screen was, “I knew it was the lead single.”
Ella tells Billboard she knew “Choosin’ Texas” was a hit when she wrote it
Her official video for the song runs about seven minutes.
The official “Choosin’ Texas” video
And this is the biggest of Mariah’s three, the duet that spent 16 weeks at No. 1 by itself.
Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men sing “One Sweet Day”
Back in September, Ella said she planned to go out and celebrate that night. “I’m really excited to just experience a moment like this in my life,” she told fans.
She may get a few more of them. Whiskey Riff figures “Choosin’ Texas” could reach 30 weeks at No. 1 by the end of November if no big new release gets in the way. On the country chart, it is reportedly three weeks away from passing the 50-week record held by “Meant to Be.” The CMA Awards come first.