Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Record: 23 Weeks at No. 1, Explained

• Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has spent 23 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the most of any song in the chart’s history.
• It passed Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which reached 22 weeks by returning to No. 1 every holiday season since 2019.
• The weeks aren’t in a row: the song first hit No. 1 in February, spent 10 weeks behind other songs, and has held the top spot every week since July 4.

Twenty-three weeks and counting. Ella Langley‘s “Choosin’ Texas” is now the longest-running No. 1 in the 68-year history of the Billboard Hot 100, after it logged its 23rd week on top on the chart dated Sept. 26, released Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Langley, 27, wrote the heartbreak song with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor, and released it on Oct. 17, 2025. Here’s which record it broke, why the weeks don’t run in a row, and who the Alabama singer is.

What record did ‘Choosin’ Texas’ break?

Most total weeks at No. 1. The record belonged to Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” at 22 weeks, but Carey built hers one December at a time: the 1994 song first reached No. 1 in 2019 and has returned to the top every holiday season since.

Among songs that aren’t holiday standards, the record was 19 weeks, shared by Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” (2019) and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (2024). “Choosin’ Texas” tied them on the Aug. 29 chart, passed them on Sept. 5 and tied Carey on Sept. 19 before breaking the record a week later.

Were the 23 weeks in a row?

No. The song first reached No. 1 on the chart dated Feb. 14, and over the next five months it spent 10 weeks behind songs by Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake and Ariana Grande. Since July 4, it has been No. 1 for 13 straight weeks.

The pattern comes from how the chart works. The Hot 100 ranks songs every week by combining U.S. streams, radio airplay and sales, tracked by the data company Luminate.

A superstar’s new single can collect a huge first week and debut at No. 1, then fade. BTS, Drake, Ariana Grande and Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” all debuted on top this year.

A song that keeps its numbers week after week, like “Choosin’ Texas,” climbs back once the debut cools off. By mid-August it had 911 million on-demand streams in the U.S. and 1.26 billion worldwide, according to Luminate.

Who is Ella Langley?

A country singer from Hope Hull, Alabama, born May 3, 1999. She broke through in 2024 with “you look like you love me,” a duet with Riley Green from her EP hungover. At the start of 2023 she had under 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify; she now has more than 32 million.

“Choosin’ Texas” is the lead single from her second album, Dandelion, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in April with 169,000 equivalent units. In May, a second song from it, “Be Her,” joined “Choosin’ Texas” at No. 2, giving her the top two spots on the Hot 100.

This year she was named female artist of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards in May, and on Sept. 10 she thanked the Country Music Association for nine CMA nominations, including entertainer and female vocalist of the year. “What a massive honor,” she posted. The CMA Awards air Nov. 18 on ABC.

What is ‘Choosin’ Texas’ about?

Losing a man to another woman, and letting him go. The narrator’s cowboy picks “Texas,” the other woman, over her and Tennessee, and she ends the song drinking alone, resigned to the idea that a cowboy is always going to leave.

The details are what stand out: he loves George Strait’s “Amarillo by Morning,” and she’s drinking Tennessee whiskey. The official lyric video is below.

More music: KATSEYE made its SNL debut as a four-piece, and here’s how to watch the VMAs on Sunday night. And here’s what Taylor Swift’s new songs are about. More in Music.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Associated Press, “Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ is the longest-running No. 1 of all time” by Maria Sherman (Sept. 22, 2026), with Luminate and Spotify data; Billboard Hot 100 charts dated Feb. 14 through Sept. 26, 2026, and Billboard 200 dated April 25, 2026; Ella Langley on X (Sept. 10, 2026); Apple Music release data for “Choosin’ Texas,” Dandelion and hungover.