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Country radio still has a gender parity problem. That hasn’t stopped Ella Langley and Megan Moroney from achieving historic success. Last week, Langley and Moroney became the first two women in country music ever to top the all-genre Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts simultaneously. Langley’s Choosin’ Texas unseated Taylor Swift’s Opalite to claim its second non-consecutive week atop the singles chart, while Moroney’s album Cloud 9 reached number one thanks to Target exclusive physical editions and strong streaming numbers.
“These aren’t flukes or one-off viral hits,” said Leslie Fram, co-founder and CEO of FEMco, a Nashville-based creative consultancy. “Megan Moroney built her base through relentless touring and social buzz. Ella Langley’s incredible song has real staying power and even non-country crossover appeal.
“And they’re doing it while country radio remains male dominated,” Fram adds, noting that there is just one female artist in the current top 15 country airplay charts. “That contrast makes it extra satisfying: the fans and streaming metrics are speaking louder than gatekeepers.”
Langley and Moroney’s history-making coup arrives amid a generational boom for country music. The last few years have seen pop stars from Chappell Roan to Sabrina Carpenter dabble in twang and Nashville hitmakers from Morgan Wallen to Luke Combs pack out stadiums and smash streaming records. “Country’s cool again,” as reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson sang in early 2024, even before Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter ignited a nationwide western-wear frenzy and Shaboozey’s smash-hit A Bar Song (Tipsy) spent an astonishing 19 weeks atop the Hot 100.
The country and pop worlds share a tenuous border, and Moroney in particular has expertly toed that line. For example, I Only Miss You, one of two duets on Cloud 9, finds Moroney trading verses with the decidedly un-country Ed Sheeran. (Despite telling Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper last year that his “end goal” is to “move to Nashville and transition to country”, the British crooner is far from a Nashville insider.) Rather than a Sheeran-style pop confection, I Only Miss You is instead one of the most traditional-sounding songs on the album, a pedal steel-slathered weeper of the barroom variety. Ditto for Bells and Whistles, Moroney’s understated duet with Kacey Musgraves, which marries witty lyrics with droll delivery and recalls Musgraves’s beloved early work. The big-name collaborators suggest crossover ambitions, but at least for now, Moroney is keeping things country.
Langley, meanwhile, has been endearing herself to her country foremothers. Choosin’ Texas came out of a co-writing session with Texas icon Miranda Lambert, who sings backing vocals on the track. (Amazingly, Langley has said that Lambert’s pet kangaroo helped inspire the song.) Lambert also co-produced Dandelion, Langley’s upcoming second studio album, and called Langley “our next legend” after they performed Lambert’s Kerosene together at last year’s Academy of Country Music awards.
That sense of lineage was on display in November, when Langley invited 90s country phenom Jo Dee Messina – most famous for her indelible hit Heads Carolina, Tails California – to share the stage during her show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The two delivered a spunky rendition of Messina’s 1998 hit Lesson in Leavin’, itself a cover of a Dottie West song from 1980.
“Ella connected with Jo Dee on social media and then they got to sing together, and that’s a very country thing,” said Cameo Carlson, CEO of mtheory, a company that provides support to artists and their managers, including Messina’s team. “It’s something so special about country music, this history and legacy and respect for the genre from younger artists.”
While Moroney and Langley are both schooled in country traditions, they’re also preternaturally fluent in the language of social media virality. Moroney broke through in 2022 with Tennessee Orange, a Swiftian ballad about being so enamored with a new beau that you’d rock a rival football team’s colors. (Sacrilege, in the world of US college sports.) While promoting the song on Instagram, Moroney posted a photo of herself wearing a Tennessee Volunteers shirt belonging to none other than Morgan Wallen, country’s scandal-plagued streaming king. Amid the social-media frenzy over whether the two were dating, the song went mega-viral, charting at number 30 on the Hot 100 before Moroney was even signed to a label. Much like Swift, who famously left messages for her rabid fans in the liner notes of her early albums, Moroney has proven herself a master of the Easter egg.
Langley has a similar knack for fanning the flames of fan speculation. Despite periodic denials from both camps, fans are convinced that Langley is romantically entangled with Riley Green, her hunkish duet partner on the jaunty 2024 US country airplay number one You Look Like You Love Me. The steamy video for the song – which is set in a wild west saloon and literally ends with the pair riding off into the sunset – did little to dispel the rumors. In June of last year, a video circulated online of Langley conspicuously winking at a fan holding a message reading: “Wink if Riley’s a DumbAss.” Langley later dismissed the wink as a joke, but fans seized on the moment, which seemed to reward their detective work. More recently, sleuthing fans noticed that the cover art for Choosin’ Texas looks eerily similar to a paparazzi photo taken of Green with Moroney. Yes, there are rumors of a love triangle.
“Country music is all about storytelling, and in the social media era, fans aren’t just listening to that story. They’re participating in it,” Carlson said. “There’s this young female fan demographic that’s turning these songs into shared cultural moments, and both artists really understand that conversation and are having that conversation with their fans around the songs.”
Country radio has been slower to respond. Choosin’ Texas topped Billboard’s streaming inclusive Hot Country Songs in just six weeks, but it took 16 weeks for it to reach number one on the slow moving Country Airplay chart. As for Moroney, despite album and ticket sales that outpace all but a few of her male peers, she has yet to notch a number one single on Country Airplay. Instead, she’s meeting fans where they are, most recently on the cross-country “9 Cities 9 Days” tour in the lead-up to Cloud 9’s release.
“Megan came to us and said she wanted to do something crazy for her fans: nine cities, nine days, $9 tickets. It was her idea, and it was a brilliant one,” said Elisa Vazzana, Moroney’s touring agent at United Talent Agency, adding that anti-bot measures were put in place. “Tickets had to be purchased in person at the box office, two per person, and everyone had to be present. At a $9 price point, we were not going to let these end up on secondaries.”
Fans got in line, worked together on colorful homemade banners and huddled for photos around 18-wheeler trucks decked out in Moroney’s neon pink album artwork. The artist herself seemed to appreciate the communal experience just as much as they did: Moroney posted a video of a crowd singalong with the caption : “group therapy is so back.”
