It took Ella Langley and three co-writers 45 minutes to write “Choosin’ Texas.”
A year after the song came out, she is still trying to measure what those 45 minutes started.
On October 17, one year to the day after the single’s release, Langley posted a reel on Instagram marking the anniversary and tagged Joybeth Taylor, Miranda Lambert and Luke Dick, the people who wrote it with her.
“I am constantly & consistently amazed by what this song has done & how much y’all continue to love it,” she wrote, signing off with “Here’s to 365 days of madness.”
Madness is a fair word for it. “Choosin’ Texas” is the longest-running No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 history, with 24 weeks on top at last report.
Choosin’ Texas Began With Miranda Lambert’s Kangaroo Story at a Writer’s Retreat
The song came out of a writer’s retreat, Langley’s first time writing with Lambert. She once told fans in Oklahoma that a retreat means taking a couple of your favorite people, sitting down for however many days and hoping some of the songs are good.
On the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards red carpet, she shared the story Lambert brought into the room.
Lambert, she said, was telling her about the time she had a kangaroo in her passenger seat and got pulled over by a cop who noticed she had Texas plates.
Forty-five minutes later, she told Billboard, they had the song written.
For You
She knew right then it was going on the record as the lead single, she said, but she could never have imagined what it went on to do. Lambert sings background vocals on it, and she later executive produced Langley’s album Dandelion, her first time in that kind of mentorship role.
“There’s not a rulebook to this job,” Langley told Billboard, adding that it helps to have “someone like her to ask questions.” When she wonders whether she should be doing something, the answer comes back, “Hell yeah, you should be doing this.”
Choosin’ Texas Took Ella Langley Past Mariah Carey for the Longest Run in Hot 100 History
Before this song, Langley was a Hope Hull, Alabama, girl who moved to Nashville in 2019 and put out an EP called Excuse The Mess. She released her debut album Hungover, hours after opening for Morgan Wallen at a Kansas City stadium, and she once told GRAMMY.com she had always pictured taking it as far as a stadium.
“Choosin’ Texas” debuted on the Hot 100 dated Nov. 1, 2025, and first reached No. 1 on the chart dated Feb. 14, 2026. Its 23rd week on top passed Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which held 22. Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” sit behind them at 19 weeks each.
Billboard had tweaked its rules the year before to encourage turnover on the Hot 100.
The song has also spent 41 weeks atop Hot Country Songs and tied BTS with an 18-week reign on Digital Song Sales. By mid-August, Luminate counted 911 million U.S. on-demand streams and 1.26 billion worldwide, and AP called it indisputably 2026’s biggest hit. The song is the lead single from Dandelion, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 169,000 equivalent album units.
The whole thing began with a cop noticing Texas plates on a car with a kangaroo in the passenger seat. When the song passed Mariah Carey, Langley wrote “23 weeks Texas forever” in an Instagram caption, and a year after those 45 minutes at the retreat, even the number in that caption is out of date.
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