USMNT Sings Ella Langley's 'Choosin' Texas' at World Cup

The U.S. men's team celebrated a World Cup win with "Choosin' Texas"

Of all the songs that could soundtrack a World Cup night, the one that took over the U.S. men's team bus was an Ella Langley single. After the USMNT beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 to move into the knockout stage, Weston McKennie put "Choosin' Texas" on a Bluetooth speaker, hit record, and turned the ride into a full-on singalong. For those of us who have watched this song climb all year, seeing it become the celebration anthem for a national team is the kind of crossover moment that still catches us off guard.

What happened on the bus

Per Billboard's July 2 report, McKennie -- the 27-year-old midfielder -- cranked Langley's song on a speaker after the final whistle and filmed himself belting it out. He didn't keep it to himself, either. He pulled in Tyler Adams, Antonee Robinson, and Christian Pulisic, and the clip of the group leaning into the chorus made the rounds on social media within hours.

TMZ framed it as McKennie "hosting an Ella Langley jam session," and that reads about right. There was no stage, no production -- just a phone, a speaker, and a bus full of players who clearly already knew the words. That last part is what makes it land. You don't get a spontaneous group singalong unless the song was already in heavy rotation for these guys long before the cameras came on.

Why "Choosin' Texas" fits the moment

It's not a random pick. "Choosin' Texas" has been the biggest country song in the country for weeks, and it just rewrote the record books -- it became the longest-running No. 1 by a woman with a country hit, a mark that had stood since 1977. We broke down that milestone in our look at how "Choosin' Texas" hit an 11th week atop the Hot 100, and this bus clip is really the same story from a different angle: the song has escaped the country lane entirely.

There's a geography wink here too. A team full of American players, several with Texas ties, choosing a song literally about choosing Texas -- that's the kind of detail that makes a clip travel. If you want the full story behind the track, from the writing to the cameo-packed video, our complete "Choosin' Texas" breakdown walks through all of it.

The bigger picture for Ella's year

Six weeks ago the talking point was Drake spinning the song in a Houston club. Now it's the U.S. World Cup squad. The through-line is that "Choosin' Texas" keeps showing up in places country singles rarely reach -- pop DJ sets, locker rooms, national broadcasts. Langley, an Alabama songwriter, is watching her music become shorthand for "American summer" in real time, and she's doing it in the middle of a headlining run. If you want to catch her live while all of this is peaking, the Dandelion Tour dates roll through the summer and into the fall.

The short version

The USMNT beat Bosnia to reach the World Cup knockout round, and Weston McKennie celebrated by leading a bus singalong to Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas," pulling in Pulisic, Adams, and Robinson. It's one more sign that the biggest country song of the year has become a genuine pop-culture anthem -- and that Ella Langley's reach now stretches well past the country charts.