Becomes First Woman to Triple-Crown Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Hot Country Airplay
(February 9, 2026) – The first and last state mentioned in the lyrics to Ella Langley’s viral hit song “Choosin’ Texas” is not Texas but her home state of Tennessee.
Yet it’s Texas that’s getting all the love because this week the tune moves to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – the all-genre chart that tracks U.S. music consumption and has rarely shown a Texas-sized welcome to country music gals like Langley.
In fact, since 1983 when Dolly Parton teamed up with Kenny Rogers on the No. 1 smash “Islands in the Stream,” the only women to top the Hot 100 with, umm, country songs were Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
That’s right, the only women before Langley to reach No. 1 with “country” singles in the past 42 years were an American Idol winner and the two artists Billboard recently deemed the greatest pop stars of the 21st century. Sure, the traditional confines of country music have been broken down in recent years as country-rap, country-pop, and bro country have expanded the genre’s audience reach, but even that hasn’t always translated to success for country music’s queens.
With the ascension of “Choosin’ Texas” to No. 1, Langley’s smash hit — co-written by country superstar Miranda Lambert — is arguably the most traditional sounding country record to top the Hot 100 by a female singer in 45 years, since Parton topped the chart solo with “9 to 5” in February and March of 1981. While her duet with Rogers two years later also topped the pop and country charts, “Islands in the Stream” was widely regarded as a pop-leaning soft-rock crossover written by The Bee Gees. Barry Gibb co-produced it with their long-time 1970s collaborators Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson (folks, think Saturday Night Fever and “Tragedy”).
For two decades after “Islands,” no country female was able to break the glass ceiling at No. 2. LeAnn Rimes (“How Do I Live?”), Shania Twain (“You’re Still the One”), and Faith Hill (“Breathe”) all had blockbuster No. 2 singles between 1997 and 2000, with Hill’s song ranking as 2000’s biggest hit thanks to its longevity on the Hot 100. Even Taylor Swift, in her more country-leaning days, topped out at No. 2 later in the ‘00s with the tunes “You Belong with Me” and “Today Was a Fairytale.”
It took more than 20 years after Dolly before another country female topped the Hot 100. That was in 2005 when Carrie Underwood’s American Idol coronation song, “Inside Your Heaven,” did the trick. But that was hardly a win for country music as the song was shrouded in power-pop guitar chords courtesy of pop/rock producer Desmond Child, notable for earlier hits by KISS, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and Alice Cooper. Underwood, deemed by Billboard as the top country female artist of both the 2000s and the 2010s, has never been able to duplicate the No. 1 success of “Heaven” with more traditional country music fare. And let’s be honest, how many country fans (or pop ones for that matter) actually remember “Inside Your Heaven”?
Then in 2012, Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together Again” reached No. 1. But, like “Islands in the Stream” and “Inside Your Heaven” before it, Swift’s song had the fingerprints of a mega pop producer, Max Martin, all over it. Martin, among the most prolific Hot 100 songwriters of all time with 28 No. 1 hits he either wrote or co-wrote, was behind hits by Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, and The Weeknd. The turn he took for Taylor in 2012 was part of an intentional pop pivot that propelled her to mega stardom, a career detour from which she’s never looked back, like ever.
And then there’s the most recent example – perhaps the most dubious of them all in the minds of her haters. Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” topped the chart for two weeks in March 2024, making her the first Black woman to hit No. 1 with a country tune. Much to the ire of the genre’s staunchest gatekeepers, Bey’s foot-stompin’ hoedown also topped the country singles charts and propelled its parent album Cowboy Carter to historic wins at the following year’s Grammys, including Best Country Album and overall Album of the Year.
So, this week’s crowning of Langley – a more traditional country singer by the most conservative of definitions – must be satisfying to some of those same purists who’d given the old boot-kick to the recent successes of Tay and Bey. “Texas” (Langley’s not Beyoncé’s) has all the requisite traits: the 26-year-old’s authentic southern drawl, slide guitars galore, twangy acoustics, and enough whiskey and tear-in-your-beer lyrics to make old Hank even take notice (she invokes him too!). Some might even consider it contrived — packed with Texas nicknames and landmarks, old country tune titles, and of course Tennessee’s own Jack Daniels. But isn’t true country music one great big metaphor?
And at least Langley’s Texas two-step seems to come by its country roots naturally, right? After all, she was born in Alabama (in 1999) and moved to Nashville at 20, where she’s been living since. And while she’s stepped into other genres briefly – she joined rapper BigXthaPlug on his country rap song “Hell at Night” and counts rocker Stevie Nicks among her many influences – there are no hyphens on her resume. She’s country through and through (even Wikipedia leaves out other genres when describing her brand).
As validation of all this, “Choosin’ Texas” is the first song by a woman to triple-crown the Hot 100, the multi-metric Hot Country Songs, and Hot Country Airplay — and the first to do so simultaneously.
As her No. 1 song goes, the Tennessee native may lament allowing a love interest to fall into the arms of a Lone Star State competitor, but the tune gives Texas another chart-topping feather in its cowgirl hat. “Choosin’ Texas” joins “Texas Hold ‘Em” as the only two songs of the past 15 years to mention states in their titles. And Texas now moves within one No. 1 song of the two states tied for first. California – “Hotel California” (Eagles), “California Love” (2Pac & Dr. Dre ft. Roger Troutman), and “California Gurls” (Katy Perry) – was the most recent state before Texas to achieve the feat.
First to do it, of course, was Georgia. The Peach State is repped by: “Georgia on My Mind” (Ray Charles), “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” (Vicki Lawrence), and “Midnight Train to Georgia” (Gladys Knight & the Pips).
And while that represents the entirety of stately No. 1 song titles, Langley’s hit will go down in history for much more than increasing the state song No. 1 count to eight. In breaking a glass ceiling that even foremothers like Twain, Rimes, Hill, and Swift (in her true country music days) couldn’t, Langley becomes the first traditional country female to top the Hot 100 without the aid of a power pop producer (or American Idol tie-in) in nearly half a century… since the Queen of Country Music herself, Dolly Parton.
And those, my friends, are some big cowgirl boots to fill!
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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