Move Over Morgan Wallen: The Case That Ella Langley is Country’s New #1 Artist

What is indisputable at this point is that Ella Langley is nothing short of a country music superstar. She is one of the biggest stars to be launched from the country genre in years, and is one of the biggest artists in all of music, dominating the domestic charts, and even delivering a strong global impact as well. What she’s doing is truly unprecedented, especially for a country artist, and especially one that’s unafraid to lean into the roots of the genre. And most notably, she’s doing it all as a woman in country music.

But is she currently the most popular artist in all of country music, supplanting Morgan Wallen and any other potential rivals? It’s certainly up for discussion at this point. In fact, it’s fair to discuss if Ella Langley isn’t the most popular artist in all of American music heading into the summer of 2026.

The chart numbers don’t lie, and at this point they are strong and static enough to come to some hard conclusions as opposed to just reading them like snapshots in time. It’s not strange at all for an artist to see top-of-chart success after debuting new music if they already have some momentum and name recognition behind them. The question is if songs and albums become “sticky,” meaning the remain at the very top of the charts for months, and in some cases, years.

That’s “sticky” phenomenon is exactly what Ella Langley is experiencing, and most importantly, not just via one song like we saw from someone like Shaboozey with his “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”

This week, Ella’s “Choosin’ Texas” spends its eighth nonconsecutive week at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, meaning it’s the most popular song in the United States with some 26.6 million streams alone, retaking the spot from last week’s #1, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drop Dead.” “Choosin’ Texas” first hit #1 back on February 9th, making Ella Langley only the 7th country woman to top the Hot 100. Then on March 23rd, Ella beat the all-time record for the longest #1 by a country woman.

But “Choosing Texas” only tells part of the story. What’s officially Langley’s current single called “Be Her” continues to perform very strong, staying in the Top 5 of the Hot 100 for another week. Her song with Morgan Wallen, “I Can’t Love You Anymore” debuts at #7 this week too, making for three songs in the Hot 100, marking another record for a country artist. Of course, all three of these songs sit #1 to #3 on the country charts too where Ella has no real competition at this point.

When Langley released the Morgan Wallen track, there was a fair question of “Why now?” when she already had two singles charting so high. Some belly laughed when Saving Country Music asserted that Ella Langley didn’t need Morgan Wallen, but Morgan Wallen needed Ella Langley. But in the current rankings at the top of the charts, that’s exactly the case. It’s unlikely any Wallen track could hopscotch Langley on the Hot 100, even one that she’s on. People want Langley more than they want anyone else.

And all this Ella Langley success isn’t just a tale of two songs, or even three. This entire time, her new album Dandelion continues to dominate, remaining ahead of Morgan Wallen on the Billboard 200, despite Ella’s only having 16 official tracks, and Wallen’s I’m The Problem having 37. Dandelion spent two consecutive weeks at #1 after its debut. This week it’s at #2 thanks to Noah Kahan’s new album The Great Divide‘s debut. But Wallen is still behind Langley at #3.

The devil’s advocate argument for why Morgan Wallen is still the bigger star is that when you factor in the live draw, Ella Langley isn’t even in the same ballpark. This is undeniable of course, but live draw is always a lagging indicator. That how The Rolling Stones, Metallica, and George Strait can be some of the highest grossing touring acts despite no present-day hits. In fact, Strait just set a new attendance record for himself recently playing to 90,037 at Clemson Stadium—his biggest audience ever outside of Texas.

But you can’t argue that George Strait is more popular than Ella Langley in this moment. He’s still George Strait, and Ella Langley’s still up-and-coming, irrespective of how popular she is. But if you project Ella Langley’s trajectory out, she’ll be playing her own arenas and stadiums next year like Morgan Wallen, and George Strait. It just takes a bit more time for these things to develop.

Furthermore, if you look at Billboard’s Artist 100 chart that accumulates a host of indicators—including singles, albums, as well as social media engagement, Ella Langley is in the #2 spot behind the album debut week of Noah Kahan (#24 last week), while Morgan Wallen is at #4. Last week, Ella Langley was at #1 on it, and very well might be again next week after Noah Kahan cycles through (though expect Kahan to remain strong).

But either way you slice it, statistically speaking, Ella Langley is the most popular artist in country music, and probably the most popular artist in all of music. Of course these things cycle through eventually, but right now, it’s Ella Langley’s world, and everyone else is just living in it, including Morgan Wallen.

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Why does all of this matter? It matters for a host of reasons. Ella Langley is the proof of concept that more country-sounding artists, and that women can top the country genre, and top all of music without having to lean into the pop side of music to broaden appeal. In fact, it’s the country aspects of Ella Langley’s music and career that the public is finding so specifically appealing.

We know country music is a copycat business. That means the industry is already trying to find more country-sounding women to recruit from the ranks of independent artists to put them in the pipeline behind Langley. We’re already seeing this benefit performers like Carter Faith and Kaitlin Butts.

All of this should also be a warning to the political apparatchiks in the media who’ve come for Ella Langley after she released her Morgan Wallen collaboration. They have been attempting to undermine her credibility by trying to offload all of Morgan Wallen’s sins onto her shoulders via association.

But if you’re really incensed at Wallen’s continued popularity, get out of Ella Langley’s way and let her ascend to the country music throne, not tear her down from her passing Wallen affiliation, inadvertently keeping Wallen at the top.

Whenever these discussions are broached, you always have independent and traditional country fans hyper focus on the imperfections and failings of the performer in Ella Langley’s position as a “country music savior.”

But when we were in the throes of Bro Country in 2015 when twang and women were virtually non-existent in country, we could we have never fathomed getting to the point we’re at right now. A woman with songs like “Choosin’ Texas” totally dominating the country charts, and dominating all of popular music seemed impossible. We’ve all been so conditioned to believe things only devolve over time, especially in country music. Sometimes this gives way to cynical thoughts, even when positive sucess is achieved.

But this entire moment isn’t just about Ella Langley. It’s also insignificant if you personally like “Choosin’ Texas” or Dandelion strongly or otherwise. It’s about the wholesale, seismic shifts that country music has experienced toward the better in recent years symbolized by Ella Langley’s success, despite the dominance of Morgan Wallen and his doppelgangers on mainstream country radio.

Morgan Wallen remains very popular too, and this is to not diminish his success, or underestimate his continued significance within the country genre. If and when he releases a new album, and he’ll probably be back on top too.

But the Bro-Country world Morgan Wallen emerged from his one we’ve witnessed implode over the last decade, despite the effort of the industry to continue to prop it up through the insular environment of radio. The future of country music is in retrenching in its past, re-establishing it’s roots, putting songwriting first, and fostering sounds that distinguish it from other popular music as opposed to pandering to it.

This is what were seeing happening through the overwhelming, culture-leading success of Ella Langley. It’s a new era in music, and that era is COUNTRY.

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