Ella Langley’s name is going to be called a lot two weeks from tonight.
The 27-year-old country singer from Hope Hull, Alabama, leads this year’s CMA Awards with nine nominations. That’s more than anyone else, and the list includes Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year.
If you missed the moment the news broke, there’s a fan upload of Ella reacting to each of her nine nominations, one at a time, and it’s a fun way to share in the excitement.
Ella reacts to each of her nine CMA nominations
Seven years ago, none of this was a sure thing. Not even close.
Ella is the second of four children of Jason and Heather Langley, who got married in April 1998. She grew up in Hope Hull and went off to Auburn University, where she spent two years studying forestry.
But her heart was somewhere else. Around December 2019, when she was 20, she made the kind of phone call every parent dreads.
“So I called mom and dad and I said, ‘Hey, I think I want to drop out of school and move to Nashville.'”
A lot of parents would have panicked. Plenty would have said finish your degree first.
Heather didn’t.
Ella has shared what her mom told her, and it’s the kind of answer a lot of dreamers wish they’d hear. “My mom would always say, ‘This is your college. This is your schooling, to move there.'”
In her mom’s eyes, the city itself would be the classroom.
Ella shared that memory with Audacy Music, and her sit-down on Audacy’s “Katie & Company” is a good chance to hear her talk about her life in her own words.
Ella sits down with Audacy’s “Katie & Company”
She left Auburn and moved to Nashville. And her family stayed right behind her.
In a 2022 Facebook post, Ella wrote that she “couldn’t chase this dream” without her family’s help. Her parents have shown up at many of her shows, including her performances at the Grand Ole Opry. After one of them, Heather posted on Instagram: “It was magic.” When Ella got her own exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame in March 2025, her mom wrote, “Ella, we are so proud of you!!”
Her dad Jason has his own stories about raising her. He joined Ella on the God’s Country podcast and talked about her growing up, including their weekend drives with music playing.
Ella and her dad Jason on the God’s Country podcast
Today Ella owns a lakeside home in the Montgomery area, just minutes from her parents. The girl who called home to say she was quitting school now has a song in its 26th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Whiskey Riff calls “Choosin’ Texas” the first song in history to stay at No. 1 there for half a year. If you somehow haven’t heard it yet, here’s the record-setting song itself.
The official video for “Choosin’ Texas”
When Ella’s name comes up on awards night, think about that phone call home. She was only 20, and her mom told her to go.
The CMA Awards air Wednesday, Nov 18, from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC. If you can’t watch live, it streams on Hulu the next day.