Ella Langley ProfileMiranda Lambert has co-produced her own music before, but before co-producing Ella Langley’s massive album, Dandelion, she’d never done that with another artist.
In a new interview with CBS Mornings, Lambert explained how she was convinced to put on her producer hat for Ella Langley’s second album.
She recalled meeting Langley for the first time at the ACM Awards, when Langley pulled her aside on the red carpet and said she wanted Lambert to produce for her.
After a “busy moment,” the pair came together and wrote music during a writing retreat with their Choosin’ Texas co-writers. Lambert co-wrote Choosin’ Texas, as well as her duet with Langley, Butterfly Season, and co-produced all of Dandelion.
“Yeah, I’ve co-produced for myself. Ella is very strong; she is somebody that knows exactly who she is, what she wants and how to get it,” Lambert explained. She added, “She grabbed me at the red carpet at the ACM’s, probably four years ago, ‘I wanna talk to you about producing.’
“And I was like, ‘Okay,’ and it was in a busy moment. And then we had set up some writes with our friend Luke Dick; he already knew Ella, and he was like, ‘I think y’all will love each other.’ And we got in there to write; we were holed up in this little house outside of town with Joybeth [Taylor] and Ella, Luke and myself, and she was just holding court.”
Lambert then remembered witnessing Langley in action and saw her “19-year-old self” in the rising star. Lambert explained, “She was saying exactly what her vision was; I loved that. I saw a lot of my 19-year-old self when I got to town, like, ‘This is what I’m gonna do’ I saw that fire in her, and it relit my fire in a way.”
She also explained that Langley “didn’t really” give her a choice regarding working together.
“And also, she didn’t really give me a choice,” Lambert quipped. “If Ella wants it, you’re doing it. She’s a very strong personality in that way, so confident. I’m honoured that she trusted me, but I think, however I’ve influenced her, because we’re about four years apart, she kinda grew up with my music.
“So, I think that she trusted it because she had seen my journey, and I did not take it lightly. I loved the process, and I’m so thankful for it; I learned so much.”
Dandelion was released in April and was produced by Langley, Lambert, and Ben West. Upon its release, the album debuted in the top ten in the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, and Scotland.
The album also marked her first-ever #1 on the US Billboard 200 and the second-largest streaming debut for a new country album by a female artist, behind Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.
Lead single Choosin’ Texas is a major hit – it became Langley’s first #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 24 non-consecutive weeks atop the chart. It set the record for the longest-running #1 by a country artist and surpassed Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, becoming the longest-running chart-topper in US chart history.
Additionally, the track has topped singles charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
