Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas becomes the longest-running No. 1 in Hot 100 history
Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" spent its 23rd week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated September 26, 2026, passing the 22 weeks of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You". It lost the top spot five times between February and July before holding it every week since July 4.
By Riffiter
Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" spent its 23rd week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated September 26, 2026. No song in the chart's history has led it for longer. The previous record, 22 weeks, belonged to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", and every one of those weeks fell in December or January.
Five times off the top
The run was not a straight line. The song first reached No. 1 on the February 14 chart and then lost the spot five times before July 4:
| Gap | Who held No. 1 |
|---|---|
| February 21 to 28 | Bad Bunny, then Taylor Swift ("Opalite") |
| March 14 | Bruno Mars ("I Just Might") |
| April 4 | BTS ("Swim") |
| May 2 | Olivia Rodrigo ("Drop Dead") |
| May 30 to June 27 | Drake, Ariana Grande, then Taylor Swift again |
It came back after every gap. From the July 4 chart through September 26 it held for 13 weeks straight, and that last stretch is what carried it past Mariah.
Billboard changed the Hot 100 rules in 2025 to encourage more turnover at No. 1. The record fell under those rules anyway.
Radio kept it there
The easy explanation for a record like this is streaming. The late-summer numbers point the other way. In the two weeks Luminate reported, July 31 to August 6 and August 14 to 20, streams slipped from 24.9 million to 24.3 million while the radio audience grew from 54.5 million to 55.7 million. NPR's Stephen Thompson still put part of it down to the platforms: "Algorithms have a lot to do with the way all-time chart records are surpassed in the streaming era."
The song also led Hot Country Songs for 41 weeks. Langley is the first woman to top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay with the same song at the same time.
The all-time list
| Song | Artist | Weeks at No. 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Choosin' Texas | Ella Langley | 23 |
| All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey | 22 |
| Old Town Road | Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus | 19 |
| A Bar Song (Tipsy) | Shaboozey | 19 |
| Despacito | Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber | 16 |
| One Sweet Day | Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men | 16 |
| Last Night | Morgan Wallen | 16 |
A kangaroo in the front seat
Langley wrote the song in October 2024 with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor, in about 30 to 45 minutes. The chorus came out of a Lambert story about being pulled over with a kangaroo in the front seat. Langley played it live in Nacogdoches, Texas, in February 2025, eight months before its October 17 release. It is the lead single from her second album.
Dandelion came out on April 10, 2026 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, her first No. 1 album.
"It feels like somebody's going to come in and be like 'haha we're kidding the whole time,'" Langley said of the run.