A generational run.
As we near the end of the year, it’s becoming increasingly clear that 2026 will go down as the year of Ella Langley. Simply put, it’s hard to argue that she’s not just the hottest star in country music, but in music as a whole.
If you’ve been paying close attention within the genre over the years, it was more than apparent that the Alabama native was bound to be a star, catching early buzz with tracks like “Country Boy’s Dream Girl,” “paint the town blue” and “That’s Why We Fight” with Koe Wetzel. With that being said, however, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the world-dominating, record-smashing success she’s had recently.
Launching off the success of her Riley Green collaboration, “you look like you love me” throughout 2024 and 2025, as well as other hits such as “weren’t for the wind,” the Alabama native has become nothing short of a phenomenon thanks to the megahit that is “Choosin’ Texas,” And, in turn, she has captured the hearts of nearly everyone in the country and the world over the past year.
Since its release on October 17th, it is now the longest-running #1 hit by a female artist this century, the only country song by a woman to triple up and go #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, Hot Country and Country Airplay charts simultaneously. In case that wasn’t enough, thanks to the success of her sophomore album, Dandelion, which debuted at #1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 and sold 169,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week, Langley became just the second woman in history to hold the #1 album and song in the U.S. simultaneously with a country song/album.
Last month, she made U.S. history by officially capturing the longest-running #1 hit in U.S. history with 23 weeks (now 24), passing Mariah Carey’s long-standing record of 22 atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
Today, she’s made even more history — this time on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
After releasing “Loving Life Again” to radio back in July, the track officially rose to #1 on the chart this week, garnering 32.4 million audience impressions across the country from October 16th to October 22nd. In turn, it’s Langley’s sixth career chart-topper on country radio.
What makes “Loving Life Again’s” ascension to #1 particularly notable is the fact that Langley is now the second woman in country music history to score four or more #1 hits from a single album with Dandelion. With “Loving Life Again,” “Choosin’ Texas,” “Be Her” and “I Can’t Love You Anymore” all reaching #1, she joins Shania Twain, who scored a staggering six chart-toppers on 1995’s The Woman in Me with hits like “Any Man of Mine” and “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?”
Additionally, Langley is now the fastest female artist to score six #1 hits in Billboard’s Country Airplay chart’s 36-year history. After scoring her first #1 with “you look like you love me” with Riley Green in December of 2024, it has only taken Langley 99 weeks to go from one chart-topper to six. In case that wasn’t already impressive enough, she is the third-fastest rising artist in country music history in terms of reaching six #1s, only behind Alan Jackson (94 weeks) and Jelly Roll (96).
“Loving Life Again”
