Yet another long-standing record broken by Ms. Langley.
In what seems like one of the greatest success stories in country music history, Ella Langley’s rise to all-genre superstardom has been one to behold over the past two years.
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,” “That’s Why We Fight” with Koe Wetzel and “you look like like you love me” with Riley Green.
With that being said, however, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the world-dominating, record-smashing success she’s had recently with “Choosin’ Texas” and Dandelion.
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 weeks atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 with her holiday classic, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Since then, Langley has only furthered the gap in the past two-and-a-half months between what was seemingly an untouchable record held by Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Though she was dethroned quite a few times throughout the month of October, thanks to Taylor Swift scoring a three-week #1 with “Patient Zero,” Langley would return to #1 the past two weeks, and she’s back once again this week, beating out a Halloween-time push this week from Michael Jackson’s classic single, “Thriller,” which re-entered at #2.
On Monday, Langley and “Choosin’ Texas” remained at the top of the Hot 100 and extended its record to a 27th week at #1, garnering 18.8 million official streams, 53 million airplays on radio and 4,000 units sold.
What makes the 27-week mark so notable for Langley, “Choosin’ Texas” and Dandelion is the fact that it allowed the Alabama native to break yet ANOTHER long-standing Billboard record held by Carey.
Though “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the pop star’s longest-running #1 hit in history, her most successful record was none other than 1995’s certified-Diamond Daydream. Of course, this is thanks to the album containing three #1 hits on the Hot 1o0: “Fantasy” (8 weeks), “One Sweet Day” with Boyz II Men (16 weeks) and “Always Be My Baby” (2 weeks) — all of which total 26 weeks combined.
Thanks to the success of the three aforementioned singles, Carey’s Daydream held the 30-year record for being the highest-charting female album with the most weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 with 26. With Langley and “Choosin’ Texas” spending its 27th week atop the chart, however, Dandelion now stands alone as the most successful female album in Billboard history from a singles perspective.
Of course, what makes Langley’s run so impressive is the fact that she notched this solely off the back of the record-smashing success of “Choosin’ Texas” alone.
While, of course, we all know at this point that she’s far from a one-hit wonder thanks to breaking multiple country radio records with other #1s, it goes to show the incredible, nearly unreplicable success that her ode to the Lone Star State has had over the past calendar year.
“Choosin’ Texas”
