Ella Langley's 'Choosin' Texas' becomes the longest-running No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 history

Ella Langley's 'Choosin' Texas' is now the longest-running No. 1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, logging its 23rd week at the top of the chart and surpassing Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You,' which had held the record.

The country song, released in October 2025 as the lead single from Langley's third studio album Dandelion, made its Hot 100 debut in November 2025, climbed into the top 10 by January, and claimed the No. 1 spot for the first time in February. Its 23 weeks at the summit are nonconsecutive. Spending 41 weeks atop Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, the track has also driven strong album sales, with Dandelion topping the all-genre albums chart for two weeks in April before returning to that position as of last week, according to Pitchfork.

Langley marked the milestone on Instagram the night the chart was announced, posting a video in which she struggled to find the right words.

I'm genuinely trying to find the words to explain what's going on in my brain today. What? I don't know. Thank you so much. Thank you for loving this song, for listening to it. I feel like… I just don't even know what to say at this point. I'm running out of hyperboles to describe how I feel.— Ella Langley, artist

Just thank you. Thank you so much. It's changing my life. It's changing the lives of the writers of this song. It's changing the lives of my family and it is truly growing an atmosphere for something I'm gonna be able to do the rest of my life and I just… today doesn't feel like a real thing.— Ella Langley, artist

The record has a complicated lineage. For 23 years, Carey's 'One Sweet Day' — a 1995 duet with Boyz II Men — held the title with 16 weeks at No. 1. In 2017, the 'Despacito' remix by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, with Justin Bieber featured, matched that total, before Lil Nas X pushed the ceiling higher in 2019, parking 'Old Town Road' at No. 1 for 19 weeks. That mark stood largely intact until late 2024, when Shaboozey pulled level with 'A Bar Song (Tipsy),' while 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' had been quietly adding weeks each holiday season since 2019 — enough for Carey to reclaim the top position last year, a reign that has now ended with Langley's rise, according to Pitchfork.

The song itself began with a story about a kangaroo. Langley has described writing it during her first songwriting retreat with country star Miranda Lambert, alongside co-writers Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor — all four are credited by Billboard. Lambert told the group about a pet kangaroo she had as a young person, including an incident in which she was pulled over with the kangaroo in the passenger seat and a dog in the back.

She said she got pulled over and the kangaroo ended up getting her out of a ticket, but she's like, 'Of course, I had Texas plates on, too.'— Ella Langley, recounting Miranda Lambert's story

And I went, 'Well, she's from Texas, I can tell.' And just from that phrase, it kind of all hit us.— Ella Langley, artist

And 45 minutes later, we had that song written. And it was just, it was such a cool experience.— Ella Langley, artist

Lambert's involvement extended beyond the writing session. Langley told Billboard in a March interview that Lambert is executive producing her next record and has become a source of career guidance.

There's not a rulebook to this job. So to be able to have someone like her to ask questions and think, you know, is it, should I be doing this? She's like, 'Hell yeah, you should be doing this.'— Ella Langley, artist

In that same March interview, when the song sat at No. 5 on the Hot 100, Langley said its trajectory had already exceeded anything she had envisioned.

When we wrote it, I knew it was going on the record. I honestly knew it was going to be the lead single. And we love that song, but I don't think I could have ever imagined what's happening with it right now. Every day I wake up and it's doing something that I didn't even know was a goal that I could have had.— Ella Langley, artist

Langley is currently on tour. Photos she shared on social media document recent stops in Oxford, Mississippi; Athens, Georgia; and Jacksonville, Florida, according to Fox News. She closed her Instagram video with a line that doubled as a verdict on the whole improbable run: 'Choosin' T… that's the one huh?'

Why it matters — The record redraws the ceiling for how long a single song can dominate American popular music, and it does so for a country track written in 45 minutes around a story about a kangaroo.

Reported by variety.com, foxnews.com, nytimes.com, billboard.com, pitchfork.com