A grandmother and her granddaughters drove four and a half hours from Wisconsin to Des Moines on Thursday night, all so 10-year-old Piper could watch country star Ella Langley take the stage at Casey's Center. The concert, part of Langley's Dandelion Tour, doubled as Piper's birthday present from her grandmother, who simply goes by Grandma Lola.
“We came all the way from Wisconsin to be here. Four and a half hours we came down,” Grandma Lola said, according to KCCI. Fans had already lined up outside Casey's Center earlier in the evening by the time the family arrived for the show, the station reported.
Piper turned 10 on Aug. 1, and the trip to see Langley perform live was designed as a belated birthday gift. “Piper turned 10 on Aug. 1, and this is her birthday present from Grandma,” Lola said. Asked how she'd rate the gift, she didn't hold back: “A 10! 100!”
A Record-Breaking Night for Langley's Chart-Topping Hit
The Des Moines stop came as Langley's single “Choosin' Texas” was riding a historic run on the charts. The song notched a record-extending 25th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated Oct. 31, 2026, per the same KCCI report. That run, the station noted, pushed the track past Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You” as the longest-running chart-topper in U.S. history.
Billboard's own accounting puts the achievement in sharper numeric context: “Choosin' Texas” has now spent 25 weeks at No. 1, compared with the 22 weeks Carey's holiday staple spent atop the chart between 2019 and 2026, according to Billboard. The song also led Billboard's multimetric Hot Country Songs chart for a 46th week, the outlet reported, and in the U.S. tracking week of Oct. 16–22 it pulled in 20 million official streams, 58.6 million radio airplay audience impressions and 4,000 in sales.
The Atlantic placed Langley's run alongside other recent long-sitting No. 1 hits, noting that Shaboozey's “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lil Nas X's “Old Town Road” each spent 19 weeks at the top, while Morgan Wallen's “Last Night” spent 16 weeks there. As of mid-August, the magazine reported, “Choosin' Texas” had already been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify.
Special Guests and a Crowded Tour Calendar
Thursday's Des Moines show featured special guests Kameron Marlowe and Gabriella Rose, according to an earlier KCCI report on the Dandelion Tour's stop at Casey's Center. The Des Moines Register had earlier noted that “Choosin' Texas” became the first song by a woman to simultaneously top the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, underscoring just how big a moment Langley is riding through the fall.
The tour itself has kept expanding to meet demand, with 21 additional shows added to extend the run through the fall, KCCI reported. For Langley, there was little time to savor the Des Moines crowd: her next stop was Lincoln, Nebraska, where she was set to perform Friday night at 7 p.m. as the Dandelion Tour rolled on.
For Grandma Lola and Piper, though, the night in Des Moines was its own destination. Four and a half hours each way, a sold-out room at Casey's Center, and a 10-year-old watching the biggest song in the country performed live — Lola's verdict needed no follow-up questions.
