Ella Langley Breaks Mariah Carey's Record with Unexpected Chart Triumph

Ella Langley credited her hit song “Choosin’ Texas” for “changing her life” after she broke Mariah Carey’s record for the longest run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I’m genuinely trying to find the words to help explain what’s going on in my brain today,” Langley, 27, said on Tuesday in an Instagram video posted from beside her pool just hours after the record was announced.

“Choosin’ Texas” has spent 23 weeks atop the chart since February, surpassing Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which held the record at 22 weeks, accumulated across the holiday seasons from 2019 through 2026.

“Thank you so much. Thank you for loving this song. For listening to it. I don’t even know what to say at this point. I’m running out of hyperboles to describe how I feel, so I will just let my dog in the background show you his excitement,” Langley continued.

The country star joked she was waiting to be pranked. 

“It’s changing my life. It’s changing the lives of the writers of this song. It’s changing the lives of my family and it is truly growing in atmosphere for something I’m going to be able to do for the rest of my life,” she said.

“It doesn’t feel like a real thing. It feels fake and somebody is going to come and say, ‘Haha, we’re kidding the whole time.’”

“I’m going to go out and celebrate tonight and I’m really excited to just experience a moment like this in my life,” she added.

“Choosin’ Texas” debuted on the Hot 100 in November 2025 and became Langley’s first top 10 hit in January before reaching No. 1 in February. The song has now spent 48 weeks on the chart overall, Billboard reported.

The Hot 100 combines US streaming, radio airplay and sales data across all genres.

The song, which Langley co-wrote alongside Luke Dick, Miranda Lambert and Joybeth Taylor, collected 21.8 million official streams in the latest tracking week, down 9 percent from the previous week, while its radio audience rose 2 percent to 58.3 million impressions.

It is also in the top 10 on the pop airplay, adult-pop airplay and adult contemporary charts.

But Langley’s record could face a challenge from Carey when Christmas arrives.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You,” released in 1994, has returned to No. 1 during the holiday season every year since it first topped the Hot 100 in 2019.

The closest songs to Langley and Carey on the all-time Hot 100 leaderboard are Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” from 2024 and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, from 2019, which each spent 19 weeks at No. 1.

Langley also appeared to take a stab at Doja Cat last month after the rapper was asked during an appearance on the “Sundae Conversation” podcast if she was a fan of Langley.

“I don’t know what that is,” Doja said, to which Langley later posted, “Ella Langley? What is that?”

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