Ella Langley Just Did What No Woman in Country Radio History Has Done

Two of the top three songs on U.S. country radio this week belong to Ella Langley. “Loving Life Again” is No. 1 on Mediabase's country chart, the one that counts what country stations actually play. At No. 3 sits “Jaded,” Koe Wetzel's single with Langley featured on it. No woman has ever held two of the top three spots on that chart at the same time.

The only song between hers is Zach John King's “Get To Drinkin'” at No. 2; Dan + Shay's “Say So” and Luke Combs' “Rethink Some Things” round out the top five. American Songwriter and Whiskey Riff both reported the first in the same terms on Monday — the first female artist ever to chart two songs inside the Mediabase Top 3 at once, in the 41 years the chart has existed. Country radio has never been generous to women chasing airplay. Getting one song into the top three was a fight. Two is new territory.

“Loving Life Again” is Langley's seventh No. 1 on Mediabase. It took the spot from Morgan Wallen's “Been By Now,” which fell out of the top five, and for the November 1–7 tracking week it was the country panel's most-played and most-heard song. It is also No. 1 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart dated November 14, a second week on top there. It first reached No. 1 on that chart dated October 31, dipped, and climbed back — which is the pattern behind the stranger record Billboard flags alongside it: since Country Airplay began in 1990, only one other song by a solo-billed woman has topped it in separate, nonconsecutive runs — and that one was also hers. “Choosin' Texas” ruled for three nonconsecutive weeks in February and March.

The new No. 1 is the fourth from her album Dandelion, after “Choosin' Texas,” “Be Her” and “I Can't Love You Anymore,” her duet with Morgan Wallen. Only one woman had ever drawn four No. 1s from a single album before: Carrie Underwood, with Storyteller. Dandelion itself opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, moving 169,000 equivalent album units in its first week. Count the calendar year instead of the album and Langley stands next to Lainey Wilson — the only two women to land four Mediabase No. 1s inside a single year. On Billboard's Country Airplay chart, four No. 1s in a year is a four-name club in total: Wallen, Combs and Garth Brooks are the other members.

A fifth No. 1 this year would break the tie with Wilson, and the candidate is already on the chart. “Jaded” is the song sitting at No. 3, and Whiskey Riff notes it is challenging for the top spot in the coming weeks. If it gets there, five would be the most Mediabase No. 1s any woman has taken in a single year.

Radio is only half of Langley's week. “Choosin' Texas,” which she co-wrote with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor and released in October 2025 as Dandelion's lead single, starts a 27th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the longest run at the top in that chart's history. Billboard's own table of the longest-running No. 1s puts Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You” second, at 22 weeks; Shaboozey's “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lil Nas X's “Old Town Road” sit behind her at 19 each. This week the challenge came from Michael Jackson's “Thriller,” which rode Halloween to a new No. 2 peak and topped the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts for the first time; Tame Impala and JENNIE's “Dracula” took a new No. 3 peak behind it. It still lost. “Choosin' Texas” held the top on 18.8 million streams, 53 million in radio audience and 4,000 sold. The 27 weeks are a total, not one unbroken stay — the song has left the top and come back across seven separate runs since it first led the Hot 100 in February, the longest of them 14 straight weeks over the summer. Previously has been counting the run since its 24th week.

The industry's own verdict arrives next week. Langley leads the 60th CMA Awards with nine nominations, including her first nod for Entertainer of the Year — the other names in that category are Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson. Her nine also include Album of the Year for Dandelion and double nominations in both Single and Song of the Year, for “Be Her” and “Choosin' Texas.” She is also on the night's performers list. The show airs live on Wednesday, November 18, from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

She is the most-nominated artist on the ballot; Miranda Lambert is next, with seven. Between now and that Wednesday, the live question is a chart one: whether “Jaded” gets to No. 1 and turns a record she shares into one she holds alone.