“Choosin’ Texas” reaches “I Will Always Love You” status

Only three women have ever had a solo No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 14 weeks or more: Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and, now, Ella Langley. The Alabama country singer, whose recent album Dandelion debuted atop the Billboard 200, can now say that her breakout hit is in the same company as “I Will Always Love You” and “We Belong Together.” But those three songs are dwarfed by Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas,” which has spent 22 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1, and will likely add to that tally again this December. Langley is also currently holding the No. 3 and No. 7 spots on the chart with “Be Her” and her duet with Morgan Wallen, “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” respectively.

Langley is having a big year overall, opening for Morgan Wallen and selling out headline shows of her own while “Choosin’ Texas” approaches 550 million Spotify streams. The song first reached No. 1 in the week of February 14, 2026, dethroning Harry Styles’ “Aperture.” As Paste’s Ethan Beck wrote in his Dandelion review, the single’s success was a result of “the song’s sturdy, confident earworm, country music’s post-pandemic imperial phase, and, of course, a TikTok push. Millions of people around the globe have surrendered to Langley’s disappointed warning that a ‘cowboy always finds a way to leave’ over the glowing guitars worthy of Steve Winwood’s eighties output.”

Since then, the song has traded positions with the likes of Bad Bunny’s “DTMF,” Taylor Swift’s “Opalite,” Bruno Mars’ “I Just Might,” BTS’ “Swim,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “drop dead,” Drake’s “Janice STFU,” and Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You.” Swift and Langley are the only artists this year to have a No. 1 hit for at least two consecutive weeks, and “Choosin’ Texas” is primed to be in its 15th week atop the Hot 100 come next Tuesday. Only seven songs have spent more time at No. 1 than “Choosin’ Texas,” and Langley could surpass Harry Styles’ “As It Was” (15 weeks), Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” (16 weeks), Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” (16 weeks), and Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey’s “One Sweet Day” (16 weeks) by summer’s end. 

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