The 5 Best Moments From Ella Langley’s Intimate Show at Denver’s Grizzly Rose

Ella Langley’s Tuesday night (Oct. 6) concert at Denver’s highway-side Grizzly Rose wasn’t exactly “intimate,” as advertised — some 1,000 people jammed into the space — but those who made it in were lucky to catch a glimpse of the rising “Choosin’ Texas” country megastar through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. It was Langley’s presence, not the size of the venue, that made her 10-song, country-band set for SiriusXM’s Small Stage Series seem more like a backyard barbecue than a soccer-stadium scrum. 

Dressed in black and strumming an acoustic guitar, Langley, 27, recalled her beginnings in Hope Hull, Ala., and suggested her career may be taking off faster than she was prepared for. “I’m really just a small-town girl,” she said, introducing “Somethin’ Simple,” a 2026 ballad that refers to missing her mama. “There really isn’t much to do there … drive around the one stoplight, maybe eat at the Mexican restaurant.”

“Choosin’ Texas” is clearly 2026’s biggest song, a regretful country-rocker about trying to keep a man in Tennessee when he’s obviously being drawn to a woman in Texas — all set to a gigantic, irresistible melody. It has spent 24 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 this year, breaking a long-standing Mariah Carey record, and might still be atop the chart if Taylor Swift hadn’t recently resurfaced with the deluxe, extra-song edition of her The Life of a Showgirl.

In her deep, commanding, no-frills voice, Langley told the Grizzly Rose crowd about her mental health challenges during her rise to the top, interspersing the brief, personal speeches with songs from her 2026 album Dandelion. Langley, who headlines Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Wednesday (Oct. 7), a Morrison, Colo., venue more befitting of her fame, seemed happy and delighted to play the Grizzly Rose, a classic-country venue where Garth Brooks performed a similarly “intimate” show early last month. After her first song, Langley measured the remaining time and said, “We’re going to have the best 38 minutes we can possibly have.” 

Check out Billboard‘s five best moments from the show.

• She Opened With “Be Her,” Befitting Mile High City

  The eloquent country ballad about envying a woman with comparatively simple problems contains the line: “Trade a mile high to walk one in her heels.” Langley’s twangy delivery and laid-back country-band presentation set an inviting tone for the night’s 10-song set.

• She Spoke Inspirationally About Her Mental Health Struggles

  In August 2025, when Langley canceled seven concerts — including opening slots for Morgan Wallen and Riley Green — she posted on Instagram: “Sometimes we have to listen when our bodies and hearts are telling us to slow down.” Last night, before playing her soft ballad “Loving Life Again,” she told the crowd: “If you’re like me, you wake up one day, you’re feeling awesome, you wake up the next day, you’re like, ‘Who am I? I don’t understand, why am I this weird, insecure version of myself?’ … If you can just remember that, on your worst moments, when you’re like, ‘I don’t know if i can make it through this moment, I don’t know if my life is worth this moment’ — yes it is, because you are loved and you are meant to be here.”

• She Addressed the Year’s Silliest Music Controversy

  During the record-breaking run of “Choosin’ Texas” over the last several months, non-fans took to social media to proudly declare they’d never heard of Langley. A Rolling Stone country reporter pushed back, criticizing people who say, “I listen to anything but country music” as a means to “signal class and taste.” The issue struck Langley as online bullying, sort of, and last night, she told the crowd: “It’s kind of weird to have other people’s opinion on you as a human,” she said. “It’s like, ‘What do you mean? You don’t know me! Huh?’” She pivoted to an aspirational note: “If you’re someone here working towards a goal … the whole process takes time.”

• “Choosin’ Texas,” of Course

  Langley performed her ubiquitous hit straightforwardly, with her six-man band and an acoustic guitar. Its killer melody is probably still bouncing off the Grizzly Rose walls. The trick to “Choosin’ Texas”? It’s not really about Texas. 

• She Didn’t Close With “Choosin’ Texas”

  The choice was 2024’s “Weren’t for the Wind,” her most Fleetwood Mac-y song of the night, with vocals reminiscent of Stevie Nicks and a reflective lyric about living a modest life. “I’d settle down, dig in some roots,” she sang. “Find me a farmhouse, find me a you.” It may be overthinking to analyze a single closing song in a 10-song set, but given the bookends of “Be Her” and “Wind,” Langley suggested massive, sudden fame is, regretfully, anything but modest.