Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert perform onstage during the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards at The Ford Center at The Star on May 08, 2025 in Frisco, Texas. Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Miranda Lambert has basically done it all in her 20-plus years of country stardom: chart-topping albums and singles, countless award show wins and unforgettable performances, and plenty of songs that have stood the test of time and then some. But one thing she’s never had — at least as a lead artist — is the thing that Ella Langley scored her very first time working with Lambert as a cowriter and co-producer: a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
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“Choosin’ Texas,” which took Langley to another level of stardom upon its late 2025 release and has only continued growing bigger throughout the first half of 2026, has already topped the Hot 100 for 10 weeks and brought country music to places few would have imagined. “My cowriter, Luke Dick, was in San Francisco at a dumpling house, and the guy making the dumplings was wearing a ‘Choosin’ Texas’ ball cap,” Lambert shares with Billboard about the song’s ubiquity.
“Choosin’ Texas” went on to be the lead single on Langley’s Billboard 200-topping Dandelion LP, and Lambert has been with her protégé every step of the way — coproducing and executive producing the set, dueting with Langley on the “Butterfly Season” track, and even appearing in the “Texas” music video. But when it comes to advising Langley on how to handle the next-level success of her breakout hit, she feels there’s a country alum who can probably speak to that better than she can.
“When Ella calls and is like, ‘What does this mean?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know,'” she tells Billboard as part of a larger interview in our Country Power Players issue, before sharing the words of wisdom she did feel comfortable sharing with Langley: “You might need to call Taylor Swift right now. Because this is, like, that kind of big.”
“Choosin’ Texas” currently resides at No. 5 on the Hot 100 — the only song in the top 10 not by Drake on this week’s chart (dated May 30). Lambert also appeared on the Hot 100 this month as a featured artist on Kacey Musgraves’ “Horses and Divorces,” which debuted at No. 84 on the May 16 chart.
