Ella Langley's 'Choosin' Texas' Shatters US Chart Records
The country hit becomes the longest-running number one in US chart history, surpassing 20 weeks at the top.
Ella Langley's country hit "Choosin' Texas" has set a new record, becoming the longest-running number one song in US chart history.
The track has now spent 23 weeks atop the charts, surpassing the previous record held by Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
Langley, who is originally from Alabama, co-wrote "Choosin' Texas" at a 2024 writing retreat. The song's inspiration reportedly stemmed from a humorous anecdote shared by country star Miranda Lambert about being pulled over by police with a kangaroo in her car. This led to the lyric, "She's from Texas, I can tell," and over the following 30 minutes, Langley, Lambert, Luke Dick, and Joybeth Taylor developed the narrative of a woman realizing her partner's heart belongs to Texas and another girl.
Previewed in February 2025, Langley identified it as the lead single from her sophomore album, "Dandelion." She expressed surprise at its monumental success, telling Billboard magazine, "Every day I wake up and it's doing something that I didn't even know was a goal I could have had. It's crazy, it's nuts."
The song's widespread popularity was further reflected at the Academy of Country Music Awards in May, where the 27-year-old artist swept all seven categories in which she was nominated. These wins included female artist of the year, artist songwriter of the year, and both single and song of the year for "Choosin' Texas."
"Choosin' Texas" is now one of only two songs in US chart history to surpass 20 weeks at number one. The other is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Historically, records for long-running chart hits have been frequently broken since the rise of music streaming.
For 23 years, Carey's 1995 duet with Boyz II Men, "One Sweet Day," held the record with 16 weeks at number one. In 2017, "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber, tied that record. The following year, Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" surpassed it, spending 19 weeks at the top. "All I Want for Christmas Is You" eventually overtook "Old Town Road" due to its recurring presence on the charts each December.
However, some industry observers suggest that current streaming models may contribute to the concentration of streams on a limited number of popular songs. A 2022 report by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority indicated that over 60% of music streams were for tracks by just the top 0.4% of artists, potentially making it more challenging for new music to gain widespread traction.