This Week’s Backstage Country Host: Ella Langley
From July 7–11, Backstage Country’s host Elaina Smith is roping in none other than the most nominated artist for the 2025 ACM Awards, who won five, including Single of the Year…
From July 7–11, Backstage Country’s host Elaina Smith is roping in none other than the most nominated artist for the 2025 ACM Awards, who won five, including Single of the Year and Best New Female Artist, Ella Langley, to co-host the show.
Ella Langley on How Her Life Has Changed
Smith and Langley talked about how she played Hyde Park with Morgan Wallen almost a year ago, and there were 50,000 people there singing her songs. Smith asked if that’s when Langley realized how her life had changed to a completely different new level.
Langley admitted, “It's just like gradual little things, you know? My life might change now, kind of feeling, I think at the time, it's still kind of rough in it last year. I mean, really was. I literally am addicted to being on the road and playing shows. I've been on the roadmap every weekend since I was 18 years old, minus COVID. I'm obsessed with it. So, to go out and see a song that you kind of wrote as a joke. I literally wrote [You Look Like You Love Me] as a joke, thinking that I was just gonna play it around the bonfire and my dad would probably think it's funny. And then that song is the thing that changed my life. It's really cool and it's refreshing for me as an artist and a songwriter to know that I'm not pigeon-nailed in this one little box of what people expect from me.”
On Being the Biggest Pessimist in the World
Langley revealed she’s “the biggest pessimist in the world” and that she set the bar low. She said she frequently thinks a song is “gonna crash and burn and everyone's gonna hate me forever” and that she never sets herself up for disappointment. So when a project turns awesome, it’s a pleasant surprise. She added, “I know I seem tough, but I'm kind of [sensitive]. And I don't like to get, ‘This means everything to me.’ So my heart gets very broken kind of easily with this job. And so I really do, I set myself up that way, which is a good and bad thing, I guess. You have to let yourself win sometimes.”
On Working with Riley Green
Langley shared how cool it was to go through the experience of having a number one song with Riley Green and winning an award: “I brought him as my date for the CMA, and we found out about the award in the car on the way there together. It's good to have somebody else there being like ‘This is just as crazy!’”
