Ella Langley with Katie Neal

After being around music her whole life and dreaming of her own success as a musician, Ella Langley, is finally experiencing the success she deserves after years of hard work, determination and finessing her talent.

The 25-year-old recently joined Katie Neal at Audacy’s Nashville Sound Space located at the Hard Rock Cafe and dug deep on her Alabama roots, long-awaited success and the song that finally broke through for her.

“I don't remember a day not thinking about wanting to do this [music],” she shared before admitting, “I didn't know how it was gonna happen.” 2024 has been the year “it happened” for the Alabama native who has experienced next-level success with her single “you look like you love me,” featuring Riley Green.

“This song, what it’s doing is insane,” she said of her debut single before admitting she never thought it would even make an album. “I wrote the song with Aaron [Raitiere] at first and we didn’t write it as a duet - we wrote it as just a song for me to play around the bonfires at writers rounds to make everyone giggle.”

After being encouraged by members of her team to submit it for consideration on her first album, Langley still didn’t think the song would resonate. “I loved the song, I just never imagined it coming out because it’s a little bit of a risk.” After one of her team members at the label submitted it anyways, Ella was surprised to get a call from her agent raving about the tune and was finally convinced to move forward with releasing it.

Originally written as a solo, the song quickly turned into a duet when Ella was invited on tour with her longtime friend, Riley Green where she asked him to jump on the tune with her. “I just asked him, I said, ‘What would your opinion be on writing a second verse for this song and then I’ll put it out on my album?’”

After the pair continued to have fun with the song on tour and explore the different creative possibilities, it quickly gained traction thanks to social media and there was no turning back. Confident in the song, it was acceptance from Riley’s fans Ella says she was most worried about.

“Honestly, I just thought it was going to go the complete opposite way,” she shared. “I was worried about putting out a song with him in the first place just because, you know, he’s Riley Green — that’s all I really have to say.”

She continued, “Playing shows this past year, there’s a lot of people who didn’t know who I was and so some of the girls in the front row were like, so annoyed at me. I’m like, ‘Woah, I’m just up here trying to sing my song.’ This was before the song even came out, so I was a little worried all these girls were about to attack me because I’m putting out a song with Riley. But, it went such the opposite way and I was like, ‘the girls have my back! Wow!’”

As of a couple weeks ago, the song is now a CMA Winner for Musical Event of the Year earning both Riley and Ella their first CMA Awards and setting them up for even more success come 2025. Hear more of Langley’s story from her childhood to recent fame by checking out her entire interview with Audacy’s Katie Neal above.

Caylee Robillar