Country singer Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Hits 26 Weeks at No. 1 Before Christmas

Most record runs are remembered for the week the record fell. For Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” the week that may matter most came later, and quietly. Its latest turn at the top of Billboard’s flagship singles chart pushes the country singer’s all-time mark past the point where the song whose record it broke, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” could overtake it with even its best December. Carey’s holiday standard can still draw level. It can no longer pass on a normal season.

The other thing this week tells you is how the song is winning now. “Choosin’ Texas” is not the most-streamed song in America, and it is not the most-played on the radio. It sits just under the leader on both lists and on top of neither, and Billboard’s main chart, which blends streaming, airplay and sales, rewards exactly that. The country outlet Holler described it as an “unmistakably traditional country idea” turned into “the biggest song in America.” The chart is now measuring how widely it is chosen, not how loudly.

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The Christmas math

Carey’s song is the only real threat to Langley’s record, and it arrives on a schedule. Billboard’s count of its holiday returns: three weeks in the 2019 season, two in 2020, three in 2021, four in 2022, two in 2023, four in 2024 and four more in the season that ended on the chart dated Jan. 3, 2026. That adds up to 22. Four is the most it has ever logged in a single holiday season.

That is why the 26th week is more than another line on the tally. At 25, a repeat of Carey’s last two Decembers would have carried her song to 26 and back to the top of the all-time list. At 26, the same run only ties. To pass Langley outright, Carey would need a fifth holiday week in one season, something the song has never managed, and that only holds if “Choosin’ Texas” adds nothing more. Not every account of the return gets the margin right. Alabama’s The Bama Buzz, cheering the hometown singer, wrote that Carey came back for three weeks in each of the last two years. Billboard’s own count is four and four, and that difference is the whole cushion.

The window to widen it is now: on the chart dated Jan. 3, 2026, holiday songs held the top 24 positions of the Hot 100. Once the carols arrive, a year-round hit has little room to add weeks.

No. 1 without leading anything big

The song lost the top spot for three weeks in October to Taylor Swift’s “Patient Zero,” which reigned in its first three weeks on the chart. When “Choosin’ Texas” took it back on the chart dated Oct. 31, it led none of the Hot 100’s three component lists: it was No. 4 on Streaming Songs, No. 2 on Radio Songs and No. 5 on Digital Song Sales.

This week the picture is similar. In the tracking week of Oct. 23-29, “Choosin’ Texas” drew 19.2 million official U.S. streams (down 4%), 57.8 million in radio airplay audience (down 1%) and 3,000 sales (down 5%), according to Luminate data cited by Billboard. Tate McRae’s “Housewife” beat it on streaming with 20.8 million, and Tame Impala and JENNIE’s “Dracula” beat it on radio with 63 million. Its only win among the components is Digital Song Sales, on 3,000 copies. Second on the two formats that matter most, and No. 1 overall: that is the shape of this record.

It also explains why the run keeps restarting rather than ending. This is the song’s seventh separate stay at No. 1, a record for a single release cycle, and nine other songs have led the chart between its first week and its latest, from Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” to Swift’s “Patient Zero.”

Nine months on top, and two more races

Behind the 26 weeks of “Choosin’ Texas” and the 22 of Carey’s carol, the all-time list drops to 19 for Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.” Langley’s song has also been No. 1 in nine different calendar months by chart date, from the list dated Feb. 14 to the one dated Nov. 7, another record; the previous best was six.

A second race runs on the country side. The song has now led Hot Country Songs for 47 weeks, three short of the 50 that Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” logged in 2017-18.

Then there is Nashville. Langley leads the 60th CMA Awards on Nov. 18 at Bridgestone Arena, hosted by Lainey Wilson, with nine nominations, tying the second-highest total for any artist in a single year, behind Alan Jackson’s ten in 2002. “Choosin’ Texas” accounts for three of them: Single, Song and Music Video of the Year. The single came out on Oct. 17, 2025, on SAWGOD/Columbia Records, with Triple Tigers working it to country radio, and anchors her album Dandelion.

The carols will take the top of the chart in December, as they do every year. The worst a normal Christmas can now do to Ella Langley is make her share the record. Taking it would need a fifth holiday week that Mariah Carey’s song has never had.

Tags: Ella Langley, Choosin' Texas, Billboard Hot 100, music charts, Mariah Carey

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