We have a new undisputed champion on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and the record couldn’t have happened to a more deserving artist. Ella Langley is in her 23rd week atop the Hot 100 with her irresistible single “Choosin’ Texas.”
This week’s top 10 on the Hot 100 (chart dated Sept. 26, 2026).
Details: https://t.co/eG3d2ZwL9S pic.twitter.com/aZWDKzdY3J
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) September 22, 2026
To understand what a feat Langley has achieved, let’s consider the biggest complaints about modern music. There are arguments to be made that music is too corporate, that it’s mostly machines and teams of songwriters crafting banal, forgettable, and even disposable pop music. Instead, the new number one song of all time has four songwriters, a band that plays real instruments, and a strong vocalist who doesn’t need tricks or gimmicks to sound amazing.
What’s especially noteworthy about “Choosin’ Texas” is that it’s unabashedly country. Sure, it hearkens back to ’80s-style country that felt comfortable on pop radio, but Langley doesn’t compromise her country music for non-country ears. Add to it that she’s humble and genuine, and it’s easy to see why people say she deserves to hold the record.
Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ “Texas” is now, officially the longest-leading No. 1 hit in Hot 100 history! 📈
The song spends a record-breaking 23rd week at No. 1, passing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
Take a look at the longest-leading No. 1 hits of all time,… pic.twitter.com/Uv0aVVeUHD
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) September 22, 2026
For all the talk about synth-heavy pop, hip-hop, and rap dominating the airwaves, look at the longest-running Hot 100 number ones. I’ll have more on the now-second-place song in a minute, but “Tipsy” is a hip-hop-country hybrid that crossed over onto the country charts as well. “Old Town Road” nods to country and features Billy Ray Cyrus, while Morgan Wallen is the current king of pop country.
Brennen Kelly writes at Whiskey Riff:
In case you haven’t been keeping up with her and “Choosin’ Texas’” success, I’ll give you a brief rundown of its accomplishments over the past 11 months.
Since its release on October 17th [2025], 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.
Langley’s first week at number one was the week ending Valentine’s Day. Those 23 weeks haven’t been consecutive, though; other songs have dethroned Langley, but she keeps coming back to the top.
Related: CNN’s Ella Langley Blind Spot Exposes Its Coastal Bubble
“It feels surreal,” Langley told Billboard News earlier this year. “I think this has been the biggest moment for me, where I’ve seen where fans can change your career. For so long, you’re like, ‘Alright, one song at a time, one record at a time.’ But with this one song — and they’ve done it continuously for me — but really with ‘Choosin’ Texas’ … man, have they taken ahold of it. It’s wild.”
Between 1958 (the beginning of the Hot 100 era) and 1991, only two single-sided singles had spent 10 weeks atop the Hot 100: Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” and Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical.” In 1991, Billboard began using electronic tracking data, which allowed songs to have longer runs at number one.
Another big change shows us why Langley had to overcome a Christmas song from 1994 to take the crown. In 2012, Billboard changed its recurrent-song rules, allowing old recordings with enough renewed popularity to return to the Hot 100. It took a few years, but Christmas songs began to gain enough momentum to hit number one.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” clocked its first week at number one in 2019, 25 years after its initial release. So basically, we put Mariah Carey up with the Christmas decorations every year, and she comes back every Christmas season to collect weeks at the top of the charts due to a lame technicality in the Billboard rules.
Side note: Before Carey started commandeering the charts every December, precisely one Christmas song topped the Hot 100. In 1958, the Chipmunks spent a month atop the charts with “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” and that was because it was a current hit on the radio. The Chipmunks are still less annoying than “All I Want for Christmas Is You” — which I used to like until radio and retail stores started acting like it’s the only Christmas song ever written.
The wonderful Brenda Lee hit number one on the Hot 100 with “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” three years ago, even though she recorded it in 1958. This shows the absurdity of the Billboard rule that lets old Christmas songs top the charts: a recording made when Eisenhower was president became a Hot 100 chart-topper in 2023.
Anyway, congratulations to Langley on this remarkable achievement. I have a feeling that she has a long, successful career ahead of her, and I hope she stays as humble and affable years from now as she is today.
Ella Langley just knocked Mariah Carey off Billboard’s all-time Hot 100 throne, and frankly, it’s about time somebody beat the Christmas-song loophole.
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