Music

At this year’s Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards, Ella Langley was the biggest winner of the night — but she can still recall fighting to perform in sweaty, hole-in-the-wall clubs in her home state of Alabama.
“I was the only woman, really, in that scene,” the 26-year-old artist says. “I was living with two other artists who were getting gigs over me. I was like, ‘I play just as good as they do. My band’s just as good as theirs. Give me a chance.’ There were times I’d have to send a couple of extra emails, but once they let me in [the venues], they would want me back. It made me work harder. But I grew up with a lot of strong women, so I’ve never looked at myself as anything other than equal.”

In the male-dominated country genre, Langley’s determination — along with her blockbuster single, the flirty, recitative Riley Green collaboration, “you look like you love me” — has helped usher her to the forefront of a new generation of country artists. Her lyrics are frank and unfiltered, her music a blend of neo-traditional country with a folk-rock edge, and she approaches her shows with the swagger of someone who battled for the attention of fans in those sweaty clubs and won.

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Onstage at the ACM Awards, while accepting the trophy for music event of the year for “you look like you love me” — one of five awards that she received — Langley again acknowledged the power of following her vision and instincts. “Everyone said this song was going to be the most underperforming song on the record,” Langley said of the duet — which ultimately defied expectations by topping Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in December and becoming her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100.

The video for “you look like you love me” has an Old West saloon vibe, but Langley has cultivated her own version of vintage-rock style that has drawn comparisons to 1970s music icons like Linda Ronstadt and Jessi Colter.

“I’m a tomboy [who] grew up with brothers, but I love to do my makeup and get dressed up,” says Langley, who can often be found in the forest deer hunting when she’s not onstage. “Jessi Colter was the outlaw of the outlaws. She didn’t put up with s–t, and I don’t either. I think the things they wrote about were very honest. That’s all I’m trying to do — write songs that mean something.”

That goal has roots in her Hope Hull, Ala., upbringing. Growing up in a musically inclined family, Langley says she learned to read by singing from a hymnal and became a disciple of classic artists such as Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks, but also modern ones including Miranda Lambert. (Langley performed Lambert’s “Kerosene” with her at the ACM Awards.)

Langley’s love of nature led her to study forestry at Auburn University, but she ultimately decided to pursue music, refining her performance and songwriting skills and honing her craft. She relocated to Nashville in 2019 and signed with Columbia Records/SAWGOD in June 2022, releasing the song “Country Boy’s Dream Girl” later that year and then following it with her EP Excuse the Mess in 2023. She wrote songs recorded by Elle King and collaborated with Koe Wetzel and Kameron Marlowe, but broke through in her own right with “you look like you love me,” which she began to work on with songwriter Aaron Raitiere while on tour opening for fellow Alabama native Green in early 2024.

Langley’s musical chemistry with Green, who contributed the song’s second verse and joined her on vocals, was undeniable — as was the catchy chorus. The track officially arrived in June, and the pair performed it on tour. When she issued her debut full-length album, Hungover, in August, “love me” surged on the charts. The 14-song set highlighted her unapologetic brand of songwriting, fusing it with rock’n’roll ­acuity (“Girl Who Drank Wine,” “I Blame the Bar”) while also conveying raw vulnerability (“People Change”).

This fall, Langley will extend her headlining Still Hungover Tour with additional dates, and she’s at work on a new album, which could arrive next year. “It’s unlike anything I’ve put out, and it’s the most me I’ve ever felt on a record,” she says of her forthcoming music. She dreams of one day adding acting and writing cookbooks to her résumé (“My kind of cooking is redneck cooking”) — but for the moment, music is her focus. Though it’s too early to tell whether the album will feature duets, “There will be things this year with collaborations that will appease the fans,” she teases.

Whatever shape the new album takes, one thing is certain: Billboard‘s 2025 Country Power Players Rising Star will keep making music her way.

“Where’s the damn rulebook that people keep telling me about?” she says. “I have yet to see it.”

This story appears in the May 31, 2025, issue of Billboard.