Country Music | Billboard Charts | March 2026
Something remarkable is happening in country music right now, and if you haven’t been paying attention, now is the time to start. Ella Langley — a 26-year-old singer-songwriter from Hope Hull, Alabama — has just become only the third woman in history to simultaneously hold the top two spots on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. And that’s just one item in a list of milestones she has stacked up over the past several weeks that would make most artists blush.
“Choosin’ Texas” sits at number one. “Be Her” sits at number two. Both songs belong to Ella Langley. And in a genre that has spent decades struggling to make room for even one woman at a time, the significance of that cannot be overstated.
What Exactly Did Ella Langley Accomplish?
Let’s walk through the full scope of what has happened, because it’s a lot.
On the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated March 14, 2026, “Choosin’ Texas” logged its 15th week at number one while “Be Her” rose to number two — drawing 21.9 million official U.S. streams, 44.1 million in radio airplay audience and 6,000 sold in the tracking week. That makes Langley just the ninth artist ever to control the top two positions simultaneously on that chart — and only the third woman to do so.
The two women who preceded her at this milestone are Beyoncé, who held the top two in April 2024 when “Texas Hold ‘Em” led and “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus debuted at number two during the rollout of Cowboy Carter, and Taylor Swift, who took the top two in October 2012 when “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was at number one and the title track from Red debuted at number two.
Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. Those are the only two women who have done what Ella Langley just did. Let that sink in for a moment.
But the Hot Country Songs milestone is only part of the story. Rewind to February 9, 2026, when “Choosin’ Texas” first climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 — the all-genre chart that measures popularity across every format and every listener in America. That made it just the fourth song ever — and the first by a woman — to simultaneously top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts at once. The other three songs to hold that particular trifecta all came out within the past few years: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” featuring Morgan Wallen, and Wallen’s “Last Night.”
Then, on the chart dated March 7, “Choosin’ Texas” returned to the number one spot on the Hot 100 as Megan Moroney debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with her album Cloud 9 — marking the first time two female country music artists had topped Billboard’s all-genre album and song charts simultaneously since the Hot 100 began collecting data in 1958.
History. Multiple times over. In a single month.
Who Is Ella Langley?
If you’re just now hearing her name, here’s what you need to know. Elizabeth Camille Langley was born on May 3, 1999 in Hope Hull, Alabama, and grew up in a musically inclined family. Her early exposure to music came through singing in local Baptist churches and informal jam sessions within her community. She loved sitting next to her grandfather at the piano, and after he passed, her father had his guitar restrung for her when she was 14.
Langley moved to Nashville in 2019, around age 20, to try to make it as a singer-songwriter. During the pandemic, she posted her music on TikTok, which was just starting to blow up for country acts in the post-Morgan Wallen era. Eventually, the 2022 midtempo twanger “Country Boy’s Dream Girl” — a celebration of independent-minded women who drive pickup trucks down red-dirt roads while listening to George Jones — got her signed to Sony Nashville.
Her big breakthrough came with the kind of song that only works when two artists have genuine chemistry. The cheeky “You Look Like You Love Me,” a she-said-he-said duet with fellow rising star Riley Green, went viral on TikTok and earned her first Billboard entries. Released to country radio on August 5, 2024, the song peaked at number 30 on Billboard Country Airplay before ultimately earning Platinum certification and going to number one — making her the only woman in 2024 to achieve that milestone.
From there, she kept building. In the summer of 2025, her solo follow-up “Weren’t for the Wind” reached the top five on Hot Country Songs and number two on Country Airplay. A second duet with Riley Green, the ballad “Don’t Mind If I Do,” reached number one on Country Airplay just before Christmas 2025. Then “Choosin’ Texas” started blowing up — and everything changed.
The Song That Changed Everything: “Choosin’ Texas”
If you haven’t heard “Choosin’ Texas” yet, it’s worth understanding why it has connected so deeply with so many people so fast. Built out of a midtempo two-step rhythm and a sparkling steel guitar melody, the song paints a vivid tableau of a solitary woman at a honky-tonk ruing her chances at dancing with the cutest guy on the floor. It revolves around an ingenious metaphor of home state as romantic destiny, building to a swaying singalong chorus that climaxes with a morose acceptance of her lonely fate: “He’s choosin’ Texas, I can tell.”
It’s a heartbreak song done the way country music does heartbreak best — specific, visual, a little self-deprecating, and impossible to get out of your head.
Langley co-wrote the song with country superstar Miranda Lambert, along with Joybeth Taylor and Luke Dick — the only man in an otherwise all-women songwriting team. Lambert also provided background vocals and co-produced the track.
The journey to number one was not guaranteed. As the tracking week drew to a close, Langley found herself in a heated race for the top spot, prompting her to rally her fans on social media: “Y’all have put me in a position to do something only a few females in country music have ever done. I’m being told we’re neck and neck on getting the #1 and if we have one last push on iTunes we might make country music history!” The rallying cry worked — “Choosin’ Texas” surged past the competition, securing its place at the top of the Hot 100 for the chart dated February 14, 2026.
The song has since gone on to become the first song by a female artist to simultaneously reach number one on the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts.
After that initial chart-topper was announced, Langley’s reaction on Instagram said everything: “We did it!! ‘Choosin’ Texas’ is the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. I can’t thank y’all enough for what you’ve done with this song, it blows my mind every single day. Here’s to women and country music.”
Why This Matters for Women in Country Music
Chart milestones are numbers on a page. What makes this story genuinely important is the context behind those numbers.
Country music has had a complicated and often deeply frustrating relationship with female artists. For decades, radio programmers operated under an informal — and sometimes explicit — rule that limited how many women could be played in rotation at any given time. One woman was fine. Two women back to back was considered risky. The phrase “playing the ratio” became a shorthand for an industry-wide bias that kept some of the genre’s most talented artists from reaching the audiences they deserved.
Gender parity has been tough to come by in country music just about since its genesis as a popular music, even accounting for the mononymous ladies of the ’90s — Faith, Shania, Reba — and the force of a pre-pop Taylor Swift.
Even country radio, which still lags behind when it comes to any kind of gender parity, got “Choosin’ Texas” to number one on Country Airplay in just 16 weeks — lightning fast by that chart’s pace. For reference, many male artists reach number one in eight to ten weeks with significant label support behind them. Langley did it on her own terms.
And it’s not just Langley. Four of the five top Country Songwriters in the March 7 chart week were women, with Moroney and Langley joined by Jessie Jo Dillon and Joybeth Taylor. Even the Country Producers chart — perhaps the most male-dominated of them all — featured Langley and Lambert credited on “Choosin’ Texas,” as well as follow-up tracks “Dandelion” and “Be Her.”
What’s happening right now isn’t a fluke. It’s a wave. And Ella Langley is riding the front of it.
The Chart Numbers in Full
For those who want the full statistical picture of what Langley has accomplished in recent weeks, here it is:
“Choosin’ Texas” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 9, 2026, becoming the first song by a solo female country artist to top that chart in years and the first ever to simultaneously hold number one on the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay. During its peak tracking week, it amassed 22.1 million official streams in the U.S., 34.4 million radio impressions, 12,000 sales, and surpassed 310 million global streams with RIAA Platinum certification.
“Be Her” debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart three weeks before the March 14 tracking date at number three, before rising to number two and marking Langley’s seventh Hot Country Songs top 10.
Together, the two songs represent the first time a solo female artist has held the top two spots on Hot Country Songs since Taylor Swift did it in 2012.
What’s Coming Next: The Dandelion Era
All of this is happening in the lead-up to what promises to be the most important release of Ella Langley’s young career. On January 27, 2026, Langley announced her second album Dandelion, scheduled for release on April 10, 2026, with both the title track and “Be Her” released in promotion for the record.
Her schedule for 2026 is packed: she kicks off The Dandelion Tour on May 7 in Toledo, Ohio, with stops in St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Austin, and more before wrapping up in Fort Worth, Texas on August 15. Supporting acts for the tour include Kameron Marlowe, Dylan Marlowe, Kaitlin Butts, Gabriella Rose, and Laci Kaye Booth. Langley is also set to join Eric Church’s Free The Machine Tour, Morgan Wallen’s Still The Problem Tour, and several major festivals throughout 2026.
In other words, if the first three months of 2026 have felt like an Ella Langley takeover — just wait.
A Moment Worth Remembering
There’s a version of this story where you just read the numbers — number one, number two, first woman, third woman — and move on. But that would miss the point entirely.
Ella Langley is 26 years old. She grew up singing in a Baptist church in Alabama. She moved to Nashville at 20 during a pandemic and posted songs on TikTok hoping someone would listen. She co-wrote her biggest hit with Miranda Lambert in the kind of songwriter collaboration that country music does better than any other genre. She rallied her fans for one last iTunes push on a Tuesday night and made history by Wednesday morning.
Langley, Moroney, and all the other women on and off the country charts aren’t trying to be exceptions, nor are they explicitly trying to rewrite the rulebook that’s been designed to stifle them. They’re just trying to get the slice of that pie that was meant to be theirs all along.
And right now, Ella Langley has the top two slices.
Ella Langley’s album Dandelion drops April 10, 2026. The Dandelion Tour kicks off May 7 in Toledo, Ohio. Tickets are available at ellalangley.com.
