If only Ella Langley three years ago knew then what she does now.
Ella has had an explosive last several years, which started with songs like “Country Boy’s Dream Girl,” “paint the town blue” and her breakout single with Koe Wetzel, “That’s Why We Fight.” That song was released in April of 2023, and it was one of the first songs of hers that Ella heard on the radio, a huge milestone for any mainstream artist from any genre.
Then, in 2024, she had her first major hit with her Riley Green collaboration, “you look like you love me,” as well as other hits such as “weren’t for the wind,” and 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.
In September, she made U.S. history by officially capturing the longest-running #1 hit in U.S. history with 23 weeks, passing Mariah Carey’s long-standing record of 22 atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
Notably, “Choosin’ Texas” is also now the first song in history to remain at #1 on the Hot 100 for over half a calendar year (26 weeks), dominating the chart throughout 2026 and allowing only nine other songs, including the likes of Swift’s “Patient Zero” and “I Knew It, I Knew You,” Drake’s “Janice STFU” and Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” to top the chart so far this year.
It’s all happened incredibly quickly, in a span of just three years, and Ella shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Ella has spoken publicly about some of her personal struggles in adjusting to this newfound fame and success, and during a recent interview on SiriusXM The Highway, Ella was asked about what she would tell her 2023 self when she first released “That’s Why We Fight” with Koe.
She says there is “absolutely nothing” she would tell her younger self, because if she knew everything that came with the success, “she would combust.” Ella added that she needed to experience it all for the first time just like she did, because even with the hard lessons she’s learned, there’s “good stuff” that came from that too:
“Absolutely nothing. Because if she knew what it would entail, I think she would combust. So I think she would really need to just experience everything for the first time. Because even the hard lessons, you learn good stuff from those too.”
She joked that she would tell herself to take a few more naps, but ultimately, she would just want her to “keep going,” which is exactly what she did:
“So I don’t know if I would tell her anything, but like, take a lot of naps right now. Actually, don’t take naps. Keep going.”
It really is wild how much she has accomplished in a very short amount of time, and it seems as though she’s come out better and stronger on the other side of it, and I think 2026 Ella mostly has a lot of “thank yous” for everything 2023 Ella did to get her to this point now:
