With more than 1.5 billion streams worldwide, Ella Langley’s hit song “Choosin’ Texas” was anointed the song of the summer and now looks poised to match the record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. But what is that worth in 2026?
At 21 weeks and counting, “Choosin’ Texas” is currently the second-longest chart-topping hit on the Hot 100, and the longest non-holiday hit of all time, having edged ahead of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lil Nas X‘s “Old Town Road” (which both spent 19 weeks at No. 1) and sitting just one week behind Mariah Carey’s 22-week record with “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
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Billboard estimates the hit has generated nearly $13.9 million from audio streams, video streams and digital sales worldwide, as well as radio airplay in the United States, since its release in early October, based on data provided by Luminate. In the United States alone, where the song has become a mainstay on popular radio, “Choosin’ Texas” has generated nearly $10.5 million in revenue.
These calculations are for label and publisher revenue. The artists and songwriters’ share of these figures depends on the terms of their contracts, which are not known.
Like “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and other country hits that achieved mainstream popularity, old fashioned terrestrial radio, and to a lesser extent satellite and Internet radio, are driving a significant share of the revenue Langley, her label and her cowriters Luke Dick, Miranda Lambert and Joybeth Taylor, will collect.
“Choosin’ Texas” has racked up more than 977,000 airplay spins, according to Luminate, which Billboard estimates will generate more than $2.4 million in revenue. The gigantic response from radio results in publishing royalties generating a larger proportional share than usual in comparison to label revenue. Breaking out the $13.9 million total, Billboard estimates overall global publishing royalties generated nearly $6 million; and global label revenue contributed nearly $8 million, excluding revenue and publishing royalties from sales of the album, Dandelion, from which “Choosin’ Texas” is the lead single.
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BMI, Langley’s performance rights organization, collects licensing fees and pays royalties to Langley and the song’s other cowriters based on factors including airplay frequency and audience. The airplay audience for “Choosin’ Texas” is nearly 2.25 billion, according to Luminate.
By comparison, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” generated $10.7 million in the United States from audio and video streams, digital song sales and airplay spins for the year spanning from Dec. 29, 2023 to Jan. 2, 2025. That song, which was released in April 2024, was also heavily played on mainstream radio. In the roughly nine months in 2024 after the song’s release, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” had 1.28 million airplay spins, generating an estimated $3.2 million.
The revenue generated by Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which was released in 1994 and first hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in December 2019, dwarfs both these hits, in part because of the song’s decades-longer lifespan. While the song was never a commercially released as a single, individual hits typically generated more revenue when music lovers bought CDs, compared to streaming the song digitally. Additionally, since streaming became the dominant way to consume music, the popularity of holiday songs on DSPs has surged as the revenue model shifted from counting sales to measuring consumption, meaning Carey’s Christmas juggernaut continues to generate steady and significant revenue.
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Billboard used Luminate data for on-demand and programmed audio and video streams and digital song downloads worldwide; and U.S. radio airplay spins, along with RIAA U.S. data to determine wholesale rates and per-stream rates provided by financial sources at major and independent labels.
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Representatives for Langley at Sony Music did not respond to a request for comment.
