Choosin' Texas Is Billboard's Song of the Summer — and Country Swept the Whole Podium

We keep thinking Ella has run out of records to break, and she keeps proving us wrong. The newest one landed today: "Choosin' Texas" has been named Billboard's Song of the Summer for 2026.

New to the song itself? Here is what "Choosin' Texas" is actually about, and the wild writing-room story behind it.

If you're not chart-obsessed, here's what that chart actually measures. Billboard ranks its 20 biggest songs by combined streaming, radio and sales across the Hot 100 from Memorial Day through Labor Day — this year's window ran from the June 6 chart through the one dated September 12. It's the closest thing the industry has to an official "song that owned everyone's summer" trophy, and "Choosin' Texas" took it outright.

What makes this one land differently is the company around it. Country music has never claimed the entire top three of the Songs of the Summer chart before — and this year it did, with Ella sitting on two of those three spots. "Choosin' Texas" led at No. 1, Taylor Swift's "I Knew It, I Knew You" came in at No. 2, and Ella's own "Be Her" rounded out the podium at No. 3. Two of the three biggest songs of the American summer belong to a woman from Hope Hull, Alabama. That still doesn't feel real to type.

There's a deeper-cut record hiding in here too. "Choosin' Texas" debuted back in October 2025, which makes it the first Song of the Summer winner in 30 years to have entered the Hot 100 in a previous year. The last song to pull that off was Los Del Rio's "Macarena," which won the 1996 ranking. A slow-burn country ballad quietly outlasting everything released this year is exactly the kind of underdog story we started this site to follow.

And the run isn't slowing down. The same song is now sitting at 21 weeks atop the Hot 100 and counting, including 11 straight weeks since the Fourth of July — the stretch that turned a fan-favorite album cut into the defining hit of the year. Back in August, country songs made up the Hot 100's entire top five for the first time ever, and Ella had two of those five.

If all of this has you wanting to see her live before the year's biggest country story rolls through your city, our tour page has every remaining Dandelion Tour date and set-time detail. And if you're new here, the story behind that No. 3 song is worth your time — here's what "Be Her" is really about.