“Lord, Why Me?”: Ella Langley on the Emotional Prayers that Inspired ‘Speaking Terms’

During her recent home-state show in Auburn, Alabama, Ella Langley opened up about the inspiration behind one of her fan-favourite songs from Dandelion, ‘Speaking Terms’.

The song finds the ‘Choosin’ Texas’ hitmaker admitting she longs for a deeper relationship with Jesus, with Langley crooning, “I carry on this one way conversation / I'm listening but You don't say a word / If Your answer's in the silence, I'll be patient / But it's hard to know my prayers are being heard / I'm waiting on a whisper, just something to confirm that / You and me are still on speaking terms”.

Since releasing that song as part of her widely lauded 2026 album, Dandelion, Langley has made a point of discussing her faith during each tour-stop on her summer run of shows. A number of her heartfelt speeches on her blossoming relationship with God and Jesus have gone viral online, with one fan even citing Langley's faith-filled words as the push she needed to put more energy into her own business.

Now, at her Auburn show, Langley has offered some insight into how that pivotal song, ‘Speaking Terms’, came about after some vulnerable and intimate conversations with Jesus.

Langley explains, “I started to think about my life and how much I'm praying for being on speaking terms with Jesus, you know, just praying, because there's so many opinions all the time, you know? What you should do, what you shouldn't do”.

The ‘you look like you love me’ singer-songwriter goes on to stress how she gains her strength from Jesus, rather than outside, temperamental sources, “So for me, what I've really, really focused on is trying to have that one-on-one relationship where I'm getting my confidence from there, not from social media or anywhere else”.

Langley adds, “And with this job comes so much imposter syndrome, you know? Like, ‘Lord, why me? Why did you pick me for this? Why? Why was this my journey here?’”

As Langley underlines, though, now she starts her prayers on a different note, one that is driven by gratitude, rather than doubt, “Instead of ‘why’, these days, I just say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for giving me this, thank you for trusting me with this’, and I work every day to be a little bit better on being on speaking terms with Jesus”.

It's a powerful meditation on a song that has grown to mean so much to so many listeners, with Langley's spirituality journey becoming a key part of her story, as she has risen to become one of country music's biggest and most widely beloved names.

As ‘Choosin’ Texas’ eyes up a 21st week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 - with Langley predicted to eventually surpass Mariah Carey's all-time record of 22 weeks - Langley continues to enjoy a year of immense success. But judging by her words in Auburn, it feels safe to say that she won't be drawing any confidence from these plaudits and accolades. Rather, her strength and joy will still stem from the quality of her prayer life, and the closeness of her relationship with Jesus.