Link copied
Ella Langley leads the nominations for the 60th Annual CMA Awards with a whopping nine nods. Ella's nine nominations put her level with Merle Haggard, Miranda Lambert and Lainey Wilson for the 2nd highest total received by an artist in a single year. Only Alan Jackson, with ten in 2002, has ever had more. It's remarkable for given Ella received her first ever CMA nomination just two years ago.
Ella receives nominations for Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year for Dandelion, Musical Event for ‘I Can’t Love You Anymore’ with Morgan Wallen and Music Video for ‘Choosin’ Texas’. Both ‘Be Her’ and ‘Choosin’ Texas’ are nominated for Single and Song of the Year.
The above means Ella is so dominant on this year’s ballot that in two categories, one of her biggest competitors is…herself.
This time last year, Ella had only just returned to the stage after cancelling seven August shows because she had been repeatedly ill and reached a point of physical and mental exhaustion. She was days away from rejoining Wallen’s stadium tour in Canada.
She was already successful and had just led the 2025 CMA nominations alongside Megan Moroney and Lainey Wilson, so it would be wrong to pretend nobody knew who she was. But nothing that came before could have ever prepared her for the sheer impact ‘Choosin’ Texas’ was about to have on her and country music’s visibility globally. Her album Dandelion hadn’t been even announced. She had never headlined an arena and Entertainer of the Year still felt like something for much later in her career.
So, fast forward to just one year later, ‘Choosin’ Texas’ has spent 21 weeks at No. 1 on the all genre Billboard Hot 100, leaving it one week away from equalling the longest run at the top in the chart’s history. It’s No. 1 in the UK and the first artist soley recognised as a country artist to reach that spot in more than 20 years, the last being LeAnne Rimes with ‘Can’t Fight The Moonlight’ in November 2000.
Dandelion debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 169,000 equivalent album units, while Ella launched her first arena tour soon after. She hasn’t just caught up with the future people predicted for her - she’s has overtaken it and lapped it several times over.
The speed of her rise over the past two years makes it easy to call Ella an overnight success. The old tip jar sitting in the Country Music Hall of Fame would suggest otherwise.
Ella grew up on a farm in Alabama, where she taught herself to play her grandfather’s guitar and practised in front of the cows.
She studied forestry at Auburn University, worked at a trampoline park and played local bars before leaving college and moving to Nashville in 2019. Six months later, Covid shut the world down. Instead of returning home, Ella performed online, finding an audience and a community of other songwriters. Before the record deal, there were four hour cover shows, four nights a week, and long drives between venues.
In 2022 alone, she played across 36 states. She kept that final $100 she earned in $1 tips from those shows. The money and the tip jar are now inside the Country Music Hall of Fame.
There is probably no neater way of explaining what has happened to Ella Langley.
The final $100 she made before the breakthrough now sits in the same building of the records she’s making, matching and breaking.
Her publishing deal came in 2021 and her record deal followed in 2023, but even then nothing arrived without a fight. Ella has revealed that she had to push hard to keep the spoken section in ‘You Look Like You Love Me’ after her label predicted it would be the worst-performing song on the record. Yet, it became her breakthrough and the first song in CMA history to win every award for which an individual song could be eligible.
The difficult period last summer matters too. Ella went home to her parents after reaching a point where she barely recognised herself. Miranda Lambert reminded her: “You are more important than this job.”
When ERNEST later asked how she was, Ella replied “back to loving life again”. That conversation became ‘Loving Life Again’ one of the most personal songs on Dandelion. Dandelions grow in difficult places and still return after being cut back.
So, how many of the nine do we think Ella can actually win?
Single of the Year looks like her strongest opportunity. ‘Be Her’ and ‘Choosin’ Texas’ facing Taylor Swift’s ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’, Lainey Wilson’s ‘Somewhere Over Laredo’ and Cody Johnson’s ‘The Fall’.
Taylor brings enormous reach, while Lainey and Cody have repeatedly shown how strongly CMA members support their records. Even so, it is difficult to forget 21 weeks at No. 1. The only danger if this is possible is the risk Ella could split her own vote. Song of the Year presents the same problem. Her two songs face Megan Moroney’s ‘Beautiful Things’, Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Dry Spell’ and Stephen Wilson Jr.’s ‘Gary’.
This award belongs to the writers, rather than simply recognising the biggest recording. Megan, Kacey and Stephen are all formidable storytellers, but ‘Choosin’ Texas’ has turned an unmistakably traditional country idea into the biggest song in America - and arguably the world - right now.
Dandelion also has a powerful Album of the Year case. It faces Zach Top’s Ain’t In It for My Health, Kacey Musgraves’ Middle of Nowhere, Parker McCollum’s self titled album and Luke Combs’ The Way I Am.
Zach has the traditional country vote, Kacey has considerable awards history and Luke remains one of the genre’s most consistent album artists.
Female Vocalist may be harder. Miranda Lambert holds the category record with seven wins, Kacey has won before, Megan Moroney has developed into an international headliner and Lainey Wilson has taken the award for four consecutive years.
Ella has owned the eligibility period commercially. But Lainey remains the person to beat on CMA history and live reputation.
Entertainer of the Year is probably Ella’s biggest challenge. She faces Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and reigning winner Lainey Wilson. All four have spent years proving themselves as major headliners.
Ella has begun playing arenas in the USA but in Britain and Canada she hasn’t yet embarked on a full UK, European or Australian headline tour. That isn’t a formal CMA requirement, but Entertainer considers live performance, public acceptance, leadership and an artist’s overall contribution.
At a time when the CMA is pushing country music’s international growth, Ella’s shorter headline stint and international touring history may be the only gap she might struggle to close vs. her competition.
But, that the demand is well and truly there. The show simply hasn’t travelled as far as her music yet.
So, what winning would actually mean?
Only seven solo women out of a possible 59 Entertainer of the Year awards have ever been named CMA Entertainer of the Year. Those solo women are Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, Reba McEntire, Shania Twain, Taylor Swift and Lainey Wilson.
Ella would become the eighth. Only eight solo women have won Album of the Year with an album of their own. Ella would become the ninth.
That means if either of her songs wins Single of the Year, she would become the first solo female artist to win the category in consecutive years, having shared last year’s victory with Riley Green. We personally think this one is a given, across all genres there is no single bigger than ‘Choosin’ Texas’ right now.
The biggest piece of history, however, would come with a clean sweep of the five headline awards: Entertainer, Female Vocalist, Album, Single and Song. Only one artist has ever won all five in the same year - none other than Alan Jackson in 2002. If Ella does it, she becomes the second artist in 60 years and the first woman.
She is nominated across seven categories in total. The record for the most CMA victories in one night is five held by Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson and Lainey Wilson. Six wins would give Ella the record outright. Seven would make history.
The most realistic route in our eyes is her bagging Single, Song, Album and Music Video, while Female Vocalist and particularly Entertainer present the bigger hurdles.
But the nominations alone say something important. In 2025, women won Entertainer, Album, Single and Song of the Year for the first time since 2000. Lainey Wilson took the first two. Ella Langley took the other two with Riley Green. One year later, Ella isn’t arriving with a ‘next-big-thing’ label - she is leading the whole thing.
The nominations recognise an extraordinary 12 months. With the fairly recent backdrop of the tip jar, cover shows, pandemic, label and mental health fight. Ella Langley has got here remarkably quickly.
Whether she leaves with one award or seven, this is the moment the language around Ella Langley has to switch from new artist threatening to become one of country music’s hallmark names. To an artist with the biggest song in America, a No 1 album, her own arena tour and more CMA nominations than anybody else.
If she wins the five headline awards, she’ll make more history. If she wins six, she breaks it.
Country music has spent years asking where its next major female star would come from.
This year, Ella Langley has answered it. “Me” 9 times.
