Mega Monday: Choosin' Texas Ties the All-Time Record, and the Rest of the Chart Barely Moved
Ella Langley's 'Choosin' Texas' hits 19 weeks at No. 1, tying the longest run in Hot 100 history -- while the rest of the top 10 is nearly identical to last week's, with Stella Lefty's 'Boston' the only real mover.
By Song Reviews · August 31, 2026
What Mega Monday Is
Every Monday, Song Reviews takes the previous week’s Billboard Hot 100 top 10 and asks the one question a chart position can’t answer on its own: is the popularity deserved? This week the chart itself is mostly the story – one record, and one number, doing more work than the other nine songs combined.
This Week’s Chart
The Hot 100, week of August 29, 2026:
| # | Song | Artist | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choosin’ Texas | Ella Langley | 19 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 – given the full Feature Friday treatment on its own, not re-reviewed here. |
| 2 | Boston | Stella Lefty | 8.0/10 – climbs from No. 4 to No. 2, this week’s only real mover, and the score still backs the position. |
| 3 | I Knew It, I Knew You | Taylor Swift | 6.3/10 – slides from No. 2 to No. 3; the Toy Story 5 tie-in bump keeps cooling as actual listening catches up. |
| 4 | Been by Now | Morgan Wallen | 7.3/10 – down one spot from last week, otherwise unchanged. |
| 5 | Hate That I Made You Love Me | Ariana Grande | 6.0/10 – holds steady at No. 5, still the clearest example on the chart of promotion outrunning the song. |
| 6 | I Can’t Love You Anymore | Ella Langley & Morgan Wallen | 7.6/10 – unchanged position, still outperforming most artists’ planned lead singles. |
| 7 | So Easy (To Fall In Love) | Olivia Dean | 8.0/10 – unchanged. |
| 8 | Dracula | Tame Impala & JENNIE | 6.4/10 – unchanged. |
| 9 | Man I Need | Olivia Dean | 8.8/10 – unchanged, still the best-reviewed record on the chart. |
| 10 | Be Her | Ella Langley | 7.8/10 – unchanged. |
Is the Popularity Deserved?
The individual scores haven’t moved because the songs haven’t changed – this is functionally the same top 10 this column already argued through last week, with Stella Lefty’s “Boston” the one song that actually climbed (No. 4 to No. 2), on the strength of a score that already justified a higher position than it had. That leaves this week’s real subject somewhere other than the song-by-song verdicts.
The real subject is the No. 1 spot itself. “Choosin’ Texas” now sits at 19 nonconsecutive weeks atop the Hot 100, tying Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” for the longest run in the chart’s history, and it’s already the most weeks at No. 1 for a female artist outside a holiday recording, passing a record Mariah Carey had held. That raises the same question this column exists to ask, just at a different scale: is a 19-week reign actually earned, or is the chart simply stalled with nothing strong enough underneath it to dislodge the song on top?
The honest answer is some of both. “Choosin’ Texas” got the full Feature Friday treatment on its own terms back on August 21, and nothing about its quality has changed in the five weeks since – it’s a genuinely strong single that doesn’t need an asterisk the way this week’s No. 3 or No. 5 do. But five weeks of a nearly frozen top 10 underneath it is also its own kind of evidence: a chart doesn’t usually stay this still unless nothing new and strong enough has actually arrived to challenge what’s already there. Both things are true at once. The song at No. 1 has earned its position on merit; the fact that it’s had nineteen weeks to prove it says as much about a quiet month for new arrivals as it does about the record itself.
Hero image: “Choosin’ Texas” single cover art, SAWGOD Records/Columbia Records. Used under fair use for editorial commentary.