How a kangaroo helped Ella Langley hop to #1 on the ‘Billboard’ Hot 100

Ella Langley’s hit “Choosin’ Texas” has been #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and has now broken a record set by Taylor Swift — but that may not be the most interesting thing about it.

“Choosin’ Texas” now holds the record for the most weeks ever spent at #1 on the Hot 100 by a song that was also #1 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart. The previous record was three, which Taylor held with 2012’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

Now, for the interesting part. Ella co-wrote “Choosin’ Texas” with country superstar Miranda Lambert during a writers retreat. While there, she asked Miranda about something a mutual friend once told her: that Miranda used to own a kangaroo.

“As a fellow animal lover, I had so many questions about that,” Ella told ABC Audio. So after they’d written a song together, Ella said, “I was like, ‘Why don’t you tell me about that kangaroo?’ And she tells me the whole story.”

“At the end of the story, she got pulled over with the kangaroo in the passenger seat. [The] kangaroo got her out of a ticket, [it] really did,” Ella noted. 

After Miranda mentioned that she had Texas plates on her car at the time, Ella said, “I was like, ‘Well, he’s probably like, “She’s from Texas, I can tell.”‘”

“And just literally that right there, the melody kind of just fell out,” she continued. “I went, ‘She’s from Texas, I can tell by the way he’s two-stepping ’round the room.’ Just like that.”

“And she’s like, ‘She’s from Texas, like the one he went with!’ And, I mean, [within] 30, 45 minutes that song was written.”

She laughs, “People are like, ‘Where do you get your inspiration from?’ I’m like, ‘Baby, it comes from everywhere and anywhere.'”