Excuuuuse me, you look like you… know a good country music singer when you see one and want to know more about rising star Ella Langley.
Ella is the frontrunner in the American Country Music Award nominations, scooping an impressive eight, including six for her song with Riley Green that you’d have to be living under a rock to have not heard by this point.
So, who is the singer with the very distinctive sound and tendency to add in a few drawl-y lines of speech to her songs, who is set to be the big winner come the awards ceremony in May?
Ella Langley’s career so far
Ella’s website describes her as the ‘maverick country music needs’ who ‘pulls no punches when it comes to life, love, and everything else under the sun.’
Originally from Hope Hull, Alabama, Ella moved to Nashville in 2019 and has been on the rise ever since. Her debut album Hungover was released in 2024.
In 2023, Ella signed with Columbia Records and Sony Music Nashville and said: ‘If you would’ve told that 13-year-old girl, learning guitar in her bedroom, that the dreams she’s dreaming are coming true, I think it would’ve knocked her out of her chair. Grateful and excited for this next step in the journey.’
Is Ella single?
As it stands, Ella seems to be single (even if country music fans would adore for her and Riley Green to be a couple.)
Ella hasn’t shied away from speaking about her love life and dating in past interviews. She told PEOPLE in 2022: ‘My perfect date is to go to a dive bar, drink some beer, shoot some pool, and throw some darts.
‘For some reason, going on a super fancy first date feels so much less comfortable than if I’m just relaxing at the bar. And I think some guys don’t know how to approach someone like that.’
Those Riley Green dating songs
Both Ella and Riley, who has also been romantically linked to Megan Moroney, have repeatedly shut down rumours that they’re an item, not that that’s stopped fans from hoping they’ll end up together.
Riley said on a podcast in November 2024: ‘Ella’s probably too smart to date me anyway. But I think that’s kind of the country music fan, like, they love the Tim McGraw and Faith [Hill], and the George [Jones] and Tammy [Wynette].
‘And when we fist started having the success we did with that song, I kinda told Ella, I was like, “There’s gonna be a lot of things said, but I mean, you don’t really have to play into it or not play into it, its gonna be something people enjoy the same way we do when we go listen to those songs”, so it’s cool to have that moment on stage with her every night.’
Her viral TikTok song
Ella’s viral hit You Look Like You Love Me with Riley Green was the sound of summer 2024 and secured her a debut on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as her first number one on country radio.
She celebrated the moment by sharing a throwback picture and writing: ‘That little girl has the #1 song at country radio today. Been dreaming this dream for as long as I can remember.
‘I’ve talked about wanting to do this for as long as I can remember. I haven’t lived a single day where this wasn’t the plan. The thing about a dream is, it’s just a dream. Today it feels real. This past year, it’s felt real. Thank you for listening and sharing and believing.’
The song also won Musical Event Of The Year at the CMA Awards – no mean feat!
Ella’s previously spoken about how the song came into existence, explaining she played it for Riley while they were on tour. ‘When we wrote the song, we were laughing thinking “this might cause some marriages, maybe some divorces, and definitely some children”,’ she told PEOPLE.
Ella’s other hit songs
All of the tracks on Ella’s Hungover record are well worth a listen, but, as well as Look Like You Love Me, another song you might recognise includes Weren’t For The Wind.
Perhaps the sweetest – and most emotional – on the album though is Closest To Heaven which Ella wrote for her grandparents and sees her singing and speaking in her deep voice, about her grandpa, who has just found out he doesn’t have much time left, telling her grandma that the ‘closest to Heaven that I’ll ever be is somewhere with you under a big old oak tree.’ Swoon.
20-20 is a great rage song to listen to at the end of a relationship with lyrics like ‘I fell for someone I thought you were, tunnel vision for something we were never meant to be, can’t even tell you what’s hurting worse, the fact that I fooled myself or you made a fool of me.’
Another well-known song of Ella’s is Country Boy’s Dream which is on her 2023 release, Excuse The Mess. Although if you’re in the mood for all the feelings, head straight for Could’ve Been Me, which sees Ella sing: ‘If I’d dyed my hair, If I’d lost that weight, If I’d worn that dress, And let you change my name. I’d still be wakin’ up in your T-shirt, I could’ve been her.’
ACM nominations
Topping off an incredible 12 months, Ella has now received eight nominations at the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Ella’s up for Female Artist of the Year and New Female Artist of the Year as well as six gongs for You Look Like You Love Me.
The song is nominated for Single of the Year, Song of the Year as an artist and songwriter, Music Event of the Year, and Visual Media of the Year as an artist and director.
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