Great advice once again from Ella Langley.
This past weekend, Ella played two sold-out shows at Neville Arena on campus of her alma mater, Auburn University. And while she was back in her home state, Ella surprised the Phi Mu sorority (I believe her sister is a member as Ella also was while she was in school there) where she took photos and videos with the girls and answered some questions too.
Fun fact: Whiskey Riff’s first coverage of Ella was back in 2018, when she was a just college student at Auburn.
Fans might know that, before “Choosin’ Texas” became the longest-running #1 hit by a female country artist on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, the only country song by a woman to triple up and go #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, Hot Country and Country Airplay chart simultaneously and just the seventh country song solely recorded by a woman to go #1 on the Hot 100 in the history of the chart, Langley scored massive success with the likes of her Riley Green-collaboration, “you look like you love me” as well as “weren’t for the wind.”
During the time period before “Choosin’ Texas,” however, Langley was fighting her own personal battles. Famously, she’d open up shortly after the 2025 ACM Awards, where she brought home four trophies on the night, noting that the week was one of the hardest mental health weeks she has had in a long time.
“I won’t lie, this last week has been probably one of the toughest mental health weeks I’ve had in a long, in a long time. Which is crazy because so many good things are happening, so many things I’ve prayed for and dreamed about. It’s just a struggle, it’s a disease in my family, really. I think it’s important to talk about it and to share that, just because I might seem like that, I’m on top of a mountain right now doesn’t look like that all the time.”
Later in August, she’d also cancel shows due to sickness, explaining that, in general, she feels overwhelmed and needs some time off. She also quoted the Bible verse Matthew 11:28, which talks about being “weary and burdened.”
Ella has since been very open about her personal mental health struggles, and while speaking to a very large group of girls at Phi Mu, she imparted some great life advice from her own experience over the last several years as she’s entered her later 20s.
Ella told them that it’s
“Something that I’m doing in my later 20s and something I wish I would’ve done in my earlier 20s is really take care of myself physically and mentally. And showing up for myself before always having to show up for everyone else.
Which is a hard thing to do because that can feel selfish in a lot of ways, but if you’re not your best, or even half of your best, how you can you show up for anyone else? So I think really taking care of yourself that way and not feeling guilty about your health, and your mental health, working out. That’s something I didn’t really do in my first years here.
I was just eating Willy’s Wings…. also, finding those people, and that’s what’s so cool about being in a sorority is you find those people. God put you here for a reason… find your people and take care of yourself.”
I couldn’t have said it any better myself… it’s really the best advice you could give to a group of young 20-something year-old-girls, and I’m sure it had to be a surreal moment for Ella to return to her old sorority at the point in her career that she’s at now.
Ella really got started playing local bars at Auburn, so I’m sure the whole weekend was very full-circle, and honestly, her advice can really apply to anyone at any stage of life:
@kabatikkin1 @Ella Langley PHI MU LOVES UUUU!!! #auburn #ellalangley #dandelions ♬ Loving Life Again – Ella Langley
