This week, Ella Langley‘s country-pop smash “Choosin’ Texas” hits one other historic chart benchmark, spending a nineteenth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 (dated Aug. 29). That ties the track with Lil Nas X’s Billy Ray Cyrus-featuring “Outdated City Highway” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Track (Tipsy)” for the second-longest reign within the chart’s historical past — in addition to the longest keep for a track throughout a single Sizzling 100 run.
However for the general all-time report for essentially the most weeks spent atop the Sizzling 100, there’s nonetheless one track to beat: “All I Need for Christmas Is You,” the 1994 Mariah Carey vacation perennial that first topped the chart in 2019, and has dominated for a number of weeks in yearly since — not counting the remainder of 2026, although it already did notch week on high this yr in early January. That week was its twenty second at No. 1, placing it three frames forward of another No. 1 hit in Sizzling 100 historical past.
Maybe not for lengthy, nonetheless. With no main current-day stars releasing new music on Friday (Aug. 21) and nothing beneath “Choosin’ Texas” on the Sizzling 100 significantly zooming up in efficiency this week, it appears a powerful guess that “Texas” will turn into simply the second track to ever spend 20 weeks at No. 1. And from there, it won’t be lengthy till it overtakes “Christmas” to turn into the lone record-holder for the longest-running chart-topper in Sizzling 100 historical past.
Think about that regardless of having spent 44 weeks on the Sizzling 100 already — near half of them at No. 1 at this level — “Texas” not solely nonetheless sits atop the chart, it does so with a 1.54-to-1 lead in Sizzling 100 factors over the present No. 2 track, Stella Lefty’s personal country-pop crossover hit “Boston.” For some context of how sizable a lead that’s, the factors benefit that “Boston” at the moment has over the Sizzling 100’s No. 3 track this week, Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” is simply 1.09-to-1. (These numbers replicate the mix of songs’ streaming, radio airplay and gross sales knowledge that determines Sizzling 100 ranks every week.)
What’s extra, Langley’s lead can also be “Texas”-sized when in comparison with the nineteenth week at No. 1 loved by the track’s two predecessors. When “Outdated City Highway” was in its nineteenth week at No. 1 again in 2019, it held only a 1.16-to-1 benefit over that week’s No. 2 track (Billie Eilish’s “Unhealthy Man,” which took over the next week). When “A Bar Track (Tipsy)” reigned for a nineteenth body, its whole was virtually equal to that of the No. 2 finisher (Woman Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile”) — although each songs have been handed the subsequent week by Kendrick Lamar’s then-debuting “Squabble Up.”
Lastly, maybe the most-impressive factor about Langley’s factors lead is that it has primarily held regular for months. Within the track’s fifteenth week at No. 1 (on the chart dated Aug. 5), her lead was 1.56-to-1. Within the track’s tenth week at No. 1 (on the chart dated Might 23), her lead over No. 2 was 1.55-to-1. Extremely, that span of weeks additionally features a five-week interruption the place the track was deposed from No. 1 by a trio of generational superstars: Drake (“Janice STFU,” two weeks), Ariana Grande (“Hate That I Made You Love Me,” one week) and Taylor Swift (“I Knew It, I Knew You,” two weeks). However whereas these songs receded from clear-cut No. 1 competition shortly after their predictably resounding debuts, “Choosin’ Texas” has remained constantly robust.
Trying to the long run, it’s onerous to identify a brand new launch — both out already or imminently due — that appears more likely to be an aggressive challenger to “Texas” on the Sizzling 100 within the close to future. New hits by Steve Lacy (“Oh Yeah?”) and Tame Impala (“Loser”) have surged up the chart not too long ago, spurred by their synch placements within the new blockbuster Spider-Man: Model New Day. However as that film’s field workplace returns have naturally begun to sluggish (although are nonetheless dominant), so have the songs’ chart ascents: “Loser” bounds 22-18 this week and “Oh Yeah?” climbs 18-17, however each will doubtless want further boosts to get inside vary of “Texas.”
In the meantime, the upcoming launch schedule for the subsequent month incorporates massive names like Rod Wave, JENNIE, Luke Bryan, Tinashe and Riley Inexperienced, however nobody who has a historical past of topping the Sizzling 100 (exterior of Carly Rae Jepsen, who did so again in 2012, however has not visited the highest 5 once more since). Shock releases or one-off singles might materialize within the interim — and positively for those who’re a fan of Drake or Taylor Swift, you might have your individual theories as to what these dependable chart-toppers have in retailer for the upcoming months. However by way of album releases at the moment on the calendar for the subsequent month, it’s onerous to see one posing an actual quick menace to Langley’s supremacy.
So would possibly or not it’s as much as Stella Lefty and “Boston,” then? In case you’re a Lamb hoping that Carey is ready to shield her all-time mark, that could be your finest guess: Lefty’s breakout hit has steadily climbed the Sizzling 100 for a lot of the previous 20 weeks, lastly touchdown within the runner-up spot for the primary time this week. It additionally ought to obtain a lift subsequent week from the Aug. 21 launch of her debut album Lengthy Means House, which options “Boston” on its tracklist, and needs to be due for a high 20 bow on the Billboard 200.
However will that be sufficient to get “Boston” excessive on the Sizzling 100? Most likely not subsequent week, anyway: Even with the bump from Lengthy Means House, the track continues to path “Texas” on the day by day U.S. streaming charts for each Spotify and Apple Music, in addition to on the iTunes gross sales chart. On radio, “Boston” is catching as much as “Texas,” however slowly; the previous is as much as 22.2 million in radio airplay viewers over the primary 4 days of this monitoring week (Aug. 21-24) — a 12% achieve, in line with Luminate — however “Texas” is at 31.6 million over the identical interval, up 1% from the week earlier than.
In different phrases, “Boston” might want to proceed gaining considerably throughout codecs — and sure hope that “Texas” lastly begins to essentially recede, in a method it hasn’t executed since first taking on the chart again in February — to have a lot probability of difficult for No. 1. (Notably, “Texas” remains to be scaling Billboard’s pop and grownup airplay charts within the high 10, after topping Nation Airplay in February-March. “Boston” is amid its climb in any respect these codecs.)
So what’s going to it take for one more track to bust by “Texas” on the Sizzling 100? Really, none of us may say but — the consistency of its efficiency thus far doubtless implies that if and when it does begin to drop, it received’t plummet, however quite fade slowly and undramatically. And within the meantime, even when a giant title does come out with an unanticipated launch, current historical past means that any interruption of “Texas” could be only a temporary one — if even that, as chart-dominating celebrity Morgan Wallen proved unable to depose his “I Can’t Love You Anymore” co-star together with his new single, when his “Been by Now” debuted at No. 2 behind “Texas” earlier in August.
In truth, the subsequent artist who we will say with relative certainty will pose a real problem to “Choosin’ Texas” at No. 1 is, certainly, Mariah Carey herself. Come the vacation season, Carey will emerge — as she has every of the final seven years — because the artist to beat on the Sizzling 100, with “Christmas” doubtless including to its 22-week whole as soon as once more. However the earliest within the chart yr “Christmas” has ever returned to No. 1 is Dec. 13 (as she did in 2025), and there’s 14 weeks’ price of Sizzling 100s to return between from time to time.
What number of of them will “Texas” personal? We will’t predict simply but — but it surely positively appears in play that by the point “Christmas” takes over once more, it couldn’t solely want additional weeks to reclaim its No. 1 endurance trophy, however a couple of vacation season.
Further reporting by Gary Belief.
