Terri Clark applauds Ella Langley's historic rise but says she 'would not want to trade places with her'
Terri Clark applauds Ella Langley's historic rise but says she 'would not want to trade places with her'
Terri Clark knows a thing or two about making it in Nashville. But even after more than three decades in the business, she's not sure she'd want to trade places with Ella Langley right now.
Langley has spent much of 2026 rewriting the record books, with her smash hit "Choosin' Texas" making Billboard Hot 100 history. And while Clark couldn't be happier to see another woman dominating country music, she also knows that kind of success comes with a price.
"I would not want to trade places with her at all," Clark told OutKick OutDoors in an exclusive interview.
In September, "Choosin' Texas" surpassed Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" to become the longest-running No. 1 song in Billboard Hot 100 history, logging its 23rd cumulative week atop the chart.
Clark, who helped define country music's female-driven era in the 1990s with hits like "Better Things to Do" and "You're Easy on the Eyes," is thrilled to see Langley breaking barriers. But she wishes more women were enjoying that same level of success.
"It's like women went from famine to feast all of a sudden, but it's not across the board," Clark said. "I wish there was more of that with other females as well. I wish it was spread out a little bit more as well."
Watch Terri Clark's whole interview with OutKick OutDoors here:
And although Clark believes women still have a long way to go when it comes to , she's happy to see Langley leading the charge.
"I'm just glad the person breaking all the records and shattering the glass ceiling is a female," Clark said. "I'm glad it's her, you know, and she's so good and she's so deserving."
Clark also praised Langley's album, "Dandelion," and said the young star seems like a genuinely good person.
"I often when I see her on Instagram and things, I often just want to give her a hug and ask her if she needs to go have coffee and talk because I can't imagine how she's navigating this," Clark said.
"It's a lot emotionally and psychologically."
Indeed, Langley's meteoric rise has come with plenty of unwanted attention. She's faced online backlash over resurfaced photos of her hunting deer in Alabama, while social media users have also scrutinized her perceived political affiliations and accused her of being an "industry plant" whose success was manufactured by the music industry.
None of those controversies was raised by Clark specifically, but they illustrate the kind of public scrutiny that can accompany sudden superstardom. The internet is always looking for ways to take you down.
"That level of success is a blessing and a curse at the same time, and you gotta be able to manage both sides of that," Clark said. "And it takes a pretty special person to be able to do that. And I think she can."
Clark has sold more than five million albums, earned 13 Top 10 singles and secured membership in the Grand Ole Opry. But despite her accomplishments, she's managed to hang on to something many superstars lose along the way: her anonymity.
"I've always been able to go to the grocery store in a ball cap," Clark said.
She pointed to country stars like Reba McEntire and the late Dolly Parton, whose fame makes ordinary outings considerably more difficult, and suggested Langley may now be experiencing something similar.
"There are some people that, you know, their anonymity has been completely stripped from them, and they either have to embrace it, like I've seen some of th
