If you haven\u2019t yet heard about how a certain fella is choosin\u2019 a woman from Texas over Ella Langley, it\u2019s only a matter of time.<\/p>\n
Langley\u2019s massive hit, \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas<\/a>,\u201d began dominating the Billboard Hot 100 charts a few months ago \u2014 and never looked back. It\u2019s still sitting at No. 1 after 19 weeks, tied for the longest time spent atop the charts<\/a> among non-holiday songs. In a few more weeks, Langley could shatter the all-time record and dethrone Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a runaway success for Langley, who is relatively new to country music but has quickly vaulted to a new tier of stardom. To break down how it happened, Today, Explained turned to Marissa Moss<\/a>, a senior writer at Rolling Stone and the author of Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moss talked with Today, Explained co-host Noel King about where Langley\u2019s success came from, what it means for women in country music, and why many fans don\u2019t know what to make of Langley, who has maintained a low profile for a star artist.<\/p>\n Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There\u2019s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Pandora<\/a>, and Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tell me about \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas\u201d is a song about a woman who is essentially losing her man in real time. She goes to a bar or a honky-tonk in Texas. She\u2019s from Tennessee. She suddenly realizes that he sees his ex who\u2019s from Texas and drifts away from her to this woman. It\u2019s that feeling of knowing when you see it in someone\u2019s face that they\u2019re going to be leaving you and figuring out whether it\u2019s worth it to hold on or to let go.<\/p>\n How big is this song, exactly?<\/strong><\/p>\n It is huge. It is up there right now in competition with Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You,\u201d which owns the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 22 weeks. Her only [other] competition is from Shaboozey and Lil Nas X, which are country-adjacent songs.<\/p>\n She really could blow by Mariah Carey. Of course you get a boost every time Christmas comes around, but we\u2019re a little ways off from Mariah Carey declaring once and for all that it\u2019s Christmas season. So I think Ella has plenty of time to catch up. And it could be the biggest song of all time, which is crazy.<\/p>\n You\u2019re a music writer and you\u2019re based in Nashville. How big a deal is Ella Langley in a place like Nashville and in the country industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n She\u2019s a big deal. And it\u2019s exciting because she\u2019s a relatively newish artist in terms of how long she\u2019s been putting out music. She only released her debut album in 2024, called Hungover.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really exciting because as a lot of people know, it can be really hard for a woman to make it in Nashville. Usually under 10 percent of songs on country radio are by women, so having someone like her out there and having so much country radio airplay and presence on the Hot 100 and breaking all these records, you really hope that it\u2019s going to help influence people in Nashville to sign more women, platform more women, do all of those things to try to sort of flip this longstanding sexism that has existed in Nashville.<\/p>\n Not to put all of our hopes and dreams on one woman, because it\u2019s not up to her to do this. It\u2019s up to the industry to respond. But you sure have to hope so.<\/p>\n Was it a surprise that \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas\u201d became such a big hit?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would\u2019ve never predicted this. I loved the song when I heard it, but I don\u2019t think I ever thought that something this country could be this popular.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite the lyrical content, which may be a little bit of a bummer, the song does just feel so good. And it\u2019s like a little bit of a brain weed gummy.\u201d<\/p>\n And yes, country music is becoming so much more popular nationwide, worldwide. But it is also country music in a lot of ways that is a little bit more pop-leaning. Morgan Wallen is extremely popular, but he\u2019s not putting out super-twangy tears-in-your-beer kind of country music songs.<\/p>\n \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas\u201d is kind of sad, but more than sad, I think it\u2019s relatable. It taps into this feeling that a lot of people have, especially in the summer. If you\u2019re thinking about a summer romance, of losing something that you once had, of letting go, of nostalgia, I think that\u2019s something that we really want to feel right now.<\/p>\n And despite the lyrical content, which may be a little bit of a bummer, the song does just feel so good. And it\u2019s like a little bit of a brain weed gummy. The second it comes on and you hear that little guitar lick it relaxes you. It gives you that summer feel of airy and fresh and a lot of people want to feel that way right now.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve said she\u2019s not a person who shares a ton about herself. Probably smart in this day and age. But country music often does get politicized. And I\u2019ve seen that happening a bit around her and around this song. Tell me about the way she is being slotted into certain perspectives in the US, whether she wants to be or not.<\/strong><\/p>\n One thing I\u2019ve seen is a lot of people from the far right wanting to use her as an example of a return to sort of this anti-girlboss era. They like to take the fact that she speaks about her faith on stage and warp that into that being sort of her overriding agenda and that she wants this return to traditional values.<\/p>\n And then on the left, I\u2019ve seen some people sort of play with the same. I personally think you could just as easily make a case that she\u2019s a feminist who had Miranda Lambert produce her album and writes with women and takes all these women on tour.<\/p>\n So many people want this moment to serve their own narrative and want Ella Langley to stand for something on every side. And if you don\u2019t give people a little, they\u2019re going to go wild. But maybe that\u2019s better than putting your personal views out there and having them ripped apart. I can\u2019t say I really blame her, to be honest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you haven\u2019t yet heard about how a certain fella is choosin\u2019 a woman from Texas over Ella…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1030935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,392,171,96981,975,5158,20644,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1030934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-culture","tag-entertainment","tag-explained-podcast","tag-music","tag-podcasts","tag-today","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117178821015266049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}