Ella Langley has confessed that the relentless online backlash has left her feeling swamped and emotionally drained.
The Choosin’ Texas artist acknowledges there are days when she doesn’t feel capable of handling the hate that’s directed at her.
While performing in Columbus, Ohio on September 25, she told the audience: “I don’t think I’ve ever had more opinions on myself in my life than I have in this last year.”
She explained that the comments have struck at every aspect of who she is: “The way I look. The way I speak. The way I dress. The way I move. The way I sing. The way I write.”
“At first, it bothered me. I won’t even lie. At first, I was like, what am I going to do about this? I don’t know, if this is what I’m signing up to do, I don’t know about this.”
There were moments when she admitted: “I don’t know if I’m strong enough for this, Lord.”
The 27-year-old star reminded herself that there is plenty she has to be proud of as she lives the teenage dream she once chased.
She reflected: “That’s the girl that rode in the 15-passenger van night after night after night. She rode in a Honda Accord night after night after night, chasing her dream, living on bar food, living on tip jar money. She didn’t have anything but a dream and the ability to get up and do it every single day. So I’m going to tell you right now, I am proud of that girl that everybody seems to be picking on a little bit.”
Her remarks followed a viral moment in Knoxville, Tennessee, when TikTok user Tiki shouted through a fence: “Ella, how many likes to take you on a date?”
Ella immediately shut it down: “Not enough in the world.”
Her reply didn’t please everyone, with some arguing that she could have dismissed him more gently.
Meanwhile, Choosin’ Texas continues its remarkable run, recently spending 23 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — surpassing Mariah Carey’s 22-week span with All I Want for Christmas Is You.
In a video message released last week, a momentarily speechless Ella spoke to fans: “I’m genuinely trying to find the words to help explain what’s going on in my brain today. What? I don’t know. Thank you so much. Thank you for loving this song, for listening to it. I feel like… I just don’t even know what to say at this point. I’m running out of hyperboles to describe how I feel, so I will just let my dog in the background show you his excitement.”
She added: “Just thank you. Thank you so much. It’s changing my life. It’s changing the lives of the writers of this song. It’s changing the lives of my family, and it is truly growing an atmosphere for something I’m gonna be able to do the rest of my life and I just… today doesn’t feel like a real thing. It feels fake and somebody’s going to come in and be like ‘haha we’re kidding the whole time just kidding.’”
Ella concluded: “I’m really excited to just experience a moment like this in my life.”
