Matthew McConaughey embraced his Texas roots during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," performing a bluegrass cover of Ella Langley's hit song "Choosin’ Texas." The performance, alongside Fallon and indie folk band The Last Bison, quickly garnered attention on social media, eliciting an enthusiastic response from Langley herself.
"I don’t think I’ll ever recover from this," Langley wrote on her Instagram Stories, sharing a video of the performance. Fans echoed her sentiment, with one commenting, "The cover we didn’t know we needed."
The segment was part of "Tonight Show Audience Suggestion Box," where a submission requested a combination of Langley's song and McConaughey's latest movie, "The Rivals of Amziah King," in which he portrays a member of a bluegrass band.
"This is ‘The Tonight Show,’ where dreams become reality," Fallon quipped before the curtain revealed McConaughey with a mandolin. Fallon joined in on the washboard, and the group performed a rendition of Langley’s song.
McConaughey's musical interlude coincides with "Choosin' Texas" continuing its chart success. The song has achieved its 17th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the longest-running non-holiday No. 1 by a solo female artist in the chart's history. This milestone surpasses previous records held by songs like Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" and Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together."
The choice of song was particularly fitting for McConaughey, a longtime vocal supporter of his home state. Born in Texas, the actor returned to the Lone Star State in 2014 with his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, and their three children. McConaughey has previously stated that returning to Texas was always part of his long-term plan for raising his family, citing a desire for his children to experience the values and "common sense" he grew up with.