Photo: Getty Images
Ella Langley springs into a fresh chapter in her career on Friday (April 10).
Langley, 26, released her highly-anticipated studio album, Dandelion. The 18-track project follows the Alabama-born country star’s 2024 debut record, hungover (and its deluxe edition, still hungover), planting her roots as a growing mainstay in the genre.
“Dandelions are masters of survival, thriving in even the harshest environments,” Langley shared in a handwritten statement. “Often dismissed as a common weed, this unassuming plant carries a deeper symbolism of hope, healing and resilience. This next record, to me, has so much growth in it. I feel the most myself I’ve ever felt. I want you to dance. I want you to sing. I want you to be able to relate to these words in a way where you don’t feel alone in your thoughts. I want you to not even worry about anything and daydream and listen to these songs. I want you to enjoy them with your friends and family. I’ve thought about this record every single day for the last year and a half, and I’m so excited to finally say… Welcome to Dandelion.
“As far as me as a songwriter goes, I’ve never poured more of myself into a project, into a song, into an idea,” she said in a clip on Instagram. “This record has fallen out so beautifully. The people I’ve gotten to work with on this record are absolutely insane. It kinda of takes you back, back home to Alabama, back home to where I started. It’s a thought that came in my head, and all of a sudden, it’s real life.”
Before Dandelion’s debut, Langley released the title track, “Be Her,” “Loving Life Again” and her history-making single, “Choosin’ Texas,” which she brought to life with a cinematic music video that premiered earlier this month. “Choosin’ Texas” starred Yellowstone and Marshals actor Luke Grimes, country megastar and co-writer Miranda Lambert, actress and model Ava Phillippe (daughter of award-winning actress and producer Reese Witherspoon), country artist and “Dandelion Tour” guest Kaitlin Butts, and more. Langley also shared sneak peeks of “Last Call For Us,” “Bottom Of Your Boots,” and “Broken” during an appearance on This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von earlier this week.
- Froggy Went A Courtin’ — Intro
- Dandelion
- Choosin’ Texas
- We Know Us
- Low Lights
- Be Her
- You & Me Time
- Loving Life Again
- Bottom Of Your Boots
- Speaking Terms
- I Gotta Quit
- It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
- Last Call For Us
- Broken
- Somethin’ Simple
- Butterfly Season, featuring Miranda Lambert
- Most Good Things Do — Acoustic
- Froggy Went A Courtin’ — Outro
Langley’s newest studio record arrives weeks after she won the Best New Country Artist award at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. Sitting between Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus before taking the stage, Langley admitted she was “a little lost for words,” when she took the stage to deliver her acceptance speech. “This is just a dream come true.”
Langley, who is also one of the most-nominated artists at the 61st ACM Awards, spoke about the story behind “Choosin’ Texas” on the iHeartRadio Music Awards red carpet.
“We were just having a writer’s retreat, and she [Lambert] was telling me this story about how she had a kangaroo in her passenger seat, and she got pulled over, and the cop was like, ‘oh, you have Texas plates.’ And I went, ‘well, she’s from Texas, I can tell,’ Langley said of the day she and her fellow songwriters penned “Choosin’ Texas.” “And literally just from that phrase, the ‘she’s from Texas, I can tell by the way,’ kind of just fell out, and I think we all latched onto that story of, ‘oh, he picked the other girl.’ You know? He picked someone else. I think everyone’s had a crush, and at some point that crush was more into somebody else at one point. If not, then lucky you or you’re lying.”
The heartache anthem is one snapshot of Langley’s second studio effort. The full project blends love songs, nostalgic elements, hopeful ballads and sharp-witted storytelling and more, bookended by a classic folk song that serves a special meaning to Langley. The country star perfectly polishes her sound while staying true to her traditional country inspirations and displaying authentic, raw emotion throughout the long-awaited record. Find the full Dandelion album on iHeartRadio here, and listen to a few of the tracks below.