How Has Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Spent 24 Weeks Atop the Hot 100 — And Why Are People So Shocked By It?
Categoria: Musica
The latest song to break the Hot 100's record for weeks at No. 1 has some pop fans perplexed. Here's what happened — and why those people shouldn't be shocked if it ends up happening again.
Por Billboard | 29/09/2026
If you’re one of the many people who’ve been expressing their shock the past week or two about Ella Langley ’s “Choosin’ Texas” becoming the longest-reigning Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 of all time, that’s basically understandable. Related Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Extends Hot 100 Record With 24th Week at No. 1 How Do We Feel About Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Setting the Hot 100’s All-Time Record for Weeks at No. 1? Ella Langley Toasts ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Setting All-Time Hot 100 High: ‘Today Doesn’t Feel Like a Real Thing’ After all, If you were to try to custom-design a song to become the most indomitable No. 1 hit in Hot 100 history, going just by the history of both American popular music and of the Billboard charts, it probably wouldn’t look or sound like “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley. It would be a bigger-feeling song by a bigger-name superstar artist (or two), it would have all sorts of narrative hooks built into its lyrics, its sound and its backstory, and it would come with an entire promo plan behind it designed to not just make it initially ubiquitous, but continually unignorable. It would seem historic long before it actually became historic. That’s not “Choosin’ Texas.” It’s not totally not “Choosin’ Texas,” of course — the song is an obvious-sounding hit by a quickly rising star with a number of fascinatingly mid-2020s elements to discuss about it and a handful of pretty big looks culturally. But did it seem historic right off the bat the way that Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s megastar teamup and 16-week No. 1 “One Sweet Day” did? Or even a tiny bit after the bat, like Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber’s map-expanding 16-week No. 1 “Despacito” did, or Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ culture-shifting 19-week No. 1 “Old Town Road” did? Not particularly. In fact, at numerous points along its chart journey to 24 weeks at No. 1 (as of this week’s Oct. 3-dated chart), “Texas” looked like its momentum was about to run aground. When it fell from its new Hot 100 peak of No. 11 down to No. 27 last December, buried by the annual avalanche of holiday titles, it looked like it might have missed its chance even to just hit the top 10. When it rebounded after the holiday rush and reached No. 1 on Feb. 14, it looked to be in a dead heat with Olivia Dean’s similarly long-climbing “Man I Need” — and if it lost out that week, it could’ve gotten boxed out by an imminent Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance and new Taylor Swift video and physical single, which did propel both artists to No. 1 in the weeks to follow. Then, having already spent 10 combined weeks at No. 1, “Texas” was absent from the top spot from late May all the way through June — replaced by new singles from three of the biggest pop stars in the world, Drake, Ariana Grande and (again) Swift. Each time, it looked like the end of the “Choosin’ Texas” Hot 100 story