Ella Langley’s Record-Tying Week Came as Dandelion Returned to the Top
7 min read
Dandelion is back at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Ella Langley’s second studio album climbs two positions to the top of the chart dated 19 September, its third week in first place, and it does so in the same week that the single which preceded it ties the longest run at No. 1 in the history of the Hot 100.
Choosin’ Texas logs a 22nd week at the top of the songs ranking, according to Billboard. Only one other song has spent that long at No. 1: Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, which built its total over several holiday seasons since 2019.
Where the Albums Ranking Stands
The tally is modest for a No. 1. Dandelion earned 67,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending 10 September, according to Billboard’s Billboard 200 report, citing Luminate data. That was down less than 1% week-on-week.
It is also the smallest total for a No. 1 album in more than a year. The last lower figure came when SZA’s SOS returned to the top for a 13th nonconsecutive week on the chart dated 3 May 2025, with 52,000 units.
Streaming did most of the work. Streaming equivalent album units made up 57,000 of the total, down 4%, which equals 60.21 million on-demand official streams of the album’s tracks. Album sales added 9,000, up 43%, lifting the set from No. 21 to No. 11 on Top Album Sales. Track equivalent albums contributed the remaining 1,000.
Consistency explains the return. Dandelion debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated 25 April, held the top spot for its first two weeks and has never left the top five. It also holds at No. 2 on Top Streaming Albums.
A Narrow Margin at the Top of the Chart
The gap between the top three was small. Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love lifts from No. 4 to No. 2 with 64,000 units, down 4%. Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem rises from No. 5 to No. 3 with 60,000 units, down less than 1%.
The highest new entry belongs to ADÉLA. The Slovak singer-songwriter’s first full-length studio album, PRIMA, enters at No. 4 with 56,000 units, of which 31,000 were album sales, enough to open at No. 1 on Top Album Sales. Billboard notes that first-week sales were supported by six vinyl variants, four CD variants, three download editions and a cassette.
Movement further down the top 10 came from reissues and deluxe editions. Ariana Grande’s petal climbs from No. 15 to No. 6 on 44,000 units, up 36%, after a deluxe digital edition with bonus live tracks. Beyoncé’s B’Day re-enters at No. 8 with 38,000 units, up 385%, its first appearance on the chart since 2008, following a 20th anniversary expanded reissue.
The steepest fall belongs to last week’s leader. Rod Wave’s Don’t Look Down drops to No. 7 in its second week with 42,000 units, down 57%. Dandelion’s own total barely moved, so its climb came from the albums above it losing ground. Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide sits at No. 5, Drake’s ICEMAN at No. 9 and Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving at No. 10.
The Longest Stay at No. 1 in Hot 100 History
The songs ranking produced the bigger headline. Choosin’ Texas now shares the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 since the chart began in August 1958. Two weeks earlier, its 20th week on top had already passed the 19 weeks each of Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) and Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road, featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, setting the mark for a non-holiday song.
Billboard’s ranking of the longest-leading hits now reads as follows. Choosin’ Texas and All I Want for Christmas Is You share first place with 22 weeks. A Bar Song (Tipsy) and Old Town Road follow with 19. Morgan Wallen’s Last Night, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s Despacito, featuring Justin Bieber, and One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men each spent 16 weeks at No. 1.
The tie may not last long in either direction. Choosin’ Texas can take the record outright with one more week at No. 1, while All I Want for Christmas Is You has topped the Hot 100 in every holiday season since 2019 and could add to its total this winter.
The single’s path to the record was a slow one. It entered the Hot 100 on the chart dated 1 November 2025, became Ella Langley’s first top 10 hit in January and first reached No. 1 in February. It led Country Airplay for three weeks in February and March before crossing to pop radio, and it currently ranks in the top 10 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary.
The Numbers Behind the Record Week
In the tracking week of 4 to 10 September, Choosin’ Texas drew 24 million official US streams and 56.9 million in radio airplay audience, each down 2%, and sold 6,000 copies, down 16%, according to Luminate data reported by Billboard. The single is released on SAWGOD/Columbia Records, with Triple Tigers promoting it to country radio.
Its component charts tell the same story. The song spends a 22nd week at No. 1 on Streaming Songs and rises from No. 4 to No. 1 on Digital Song Sales, its 17th week at the top of that list. On Radio Songs it slips from No. 5 to No. 6, having peaked at No. 4.
The country ranking adds another milestone. Choosin’ Texas leads the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart for a 40th week, making it only the third song to reach that tally. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s Meant to Be led for 50 weeks in 2017 and 2018, and A Bar Song (Tipsy) led for 45 weeks across 2024 and 2025.
Another song from the album remains in the Hot 100 top 10. Be Her rises from No. 10 to No. 9, having peaked at No. 2.
Four Country Airplay Top 10s From One Album
Dandelion also set a radio mark this week. Loving Life Again climbs four positions to No. 8 on Country Airplay, with 18.6 million audience impressions, up 14%, according to Billboard’s Country Airplay report. It is Ella Langley’s seventh top 10 on that chart and the fourth from Dandelion.
That makes Dandelion the first album by a woman in the 2020s to produce four Country Airplay top 10s. The first three all went to No. 1: Choosin’ Texas for three weeks in February and March, Be Her for four weeks in June, and I Can’t Love You Anymore, her duet with Morgan Wallen, for two weeks in August.
The previous album by a woman to reach four was Kelsea Ballerini’s debut, The First Time, across 2015 to 2017. Just before that, Carrie Underwood earned four from Storyteller in 2015 and 2016. The benchmark for any artist remains Shania Twain’s Come On Over, which sent eight songs into the Country Airplay top 10 between 1997 and 1999 and led Top Country Albums for 50 weeks, according to Billboard’s weekly chart highlights.
Released on 10 April, Dandelion had spent 17 weeks and counting at No. 1 on Top Country Albums when Billboard reported the airplay milestone. I Can’t Love You Anymore was added to the album after the song arrived on 24 April.
A Summer Built Around One Song
The record run also decided Billboard’s summer ranking. Choosin’ Texas finished at No. 1 on the 2026 Songs of the Summer chart, which tracks cumulative Hot 100 performance from Memorial Day to Labor Day, according to Billboard. Country songs took the top three places for the first time, with Taylor Swift’s I Knew It, I Knew You at No. 2 and Be Her at No. 3.
Choosin’ Texas led the summer on both streams and downloads. It drew 407 million official US streams in the summer tracking period and sold 124,000 downloads, the most of any song in each measure.
It is also an unusual champion because of its age. Released in October 2025, it is the first season-ending Songs of the Summer No. 1 in 30 years to have entered the Hot 100 in an earlier year, a distinction last held by Los Del Rio’s Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix) in 1996.
Country’s grip on the top of the Hot 100 extends beyond Langley. In the latest week, Stella Lefty’s Boston holds at No. 2, Swift’s single stays at No. 3 and Morgan Wallen’s Been by Now rebounds to No. 4. Billboard counts 15 times in the chart’s history that country songs have held the top three, four or five places, and 11 of them have come since the start of July.
From 169,000 Units to a Third Week on Top
Dandelion’s first week set a different scale. The album opened with 169,000 equivalent album units on the chart dated 25 April, according to Billboard’s debut report, the largest week for a country album by a woman in two years and, at that point, the biggest week of 2026 for any woman. Streaming accounted for 128,000 of those units, equal to 130.46 million on-demand streams, and sales for 39,000, both career bests for Langley.
That debut also made chart history for women in country. Following Megan Moroney’s Cloud 9, which opened at No. 1 on the chart dated 7 March, it gave the Billboard 200 two No. 1 country albums by two different solo women in the same calendar year for the first time since 2012, when Taylor Swift’s Red and Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away both reached the top.
Dandelion was Langley’s first top 10 album and only her second entry on the chart. Her debut, Hungover, entered in August 2024 but did not reach the top 40 until January 2026, peaking at No. 20 in its 80th week on the list.
Five months on, the album’s weekly total is well under half of its opening figure, yet it is No. 1 again because it has held its audience while newer releases, such as last week’s No. 1, fell away quickly. BestMusic.News tracked a different kind of chart concentration recently, when Davido charted twelve Oriadé songs in a single week. Ella Langley’s version is slower and rarer: one album and one single holding the top of both main US rankings in the same week, months after release.
