Ella Langley is at the top of her game. She’s delivering ground-breaking hits, obliterating records, and winning countless awards. Fellow country titan, HARDY, has worked with Langley on a couple of tracks and, like the rest of us, is in awe of her creativity.

“She’s super creative, which I love,” HARDY explains to Holler during CMA Fest Presented by SoFi 2026, “She’s very involved, she just gets it…and ‘it’ is such a hard thing to explain”.

HARDY and Langley have worked together on two songs so far. The first of which was their 2025 single ‘Never Met Anyone Like You’. Advertised as ‘not a love song,’ their rock infused anthem showcased Langley’s vulnerability with a genre blending plot twist: HARDY. His grungy guitars and full band crescendo took the track from ballad to head-banger. Severely underrated at the time of release, the song didn’t get the recognition it deserved for its clever storyline, double entendre and genre blend all in under 3 minutes. And strangely, it was omitted from Dandelion. Still, at the time of writing, it has amassed over 36 million streams on Spotify.

Since then, the pair went on to write ‘Be Her’. A completely different style, the song edges more towards the poppier side of country. The echoes of claps, slither of steel and upbeat banjo are a stark contrast to the pair’s earlier project and is evidently more of a crowd-pleaser, with over 142 million Spotify streams at the time of writing. If it wasn't for the streaming behemoth, ‘Choosin’ Texas’, holding onto the top spot, ‘Be Her’ would be Langley's second Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 by now.

Songs with stats like that don’t just happen - well, not all the time - and HARDY speaks fondly of his time collaborating Langley.

“She’s very musical, which is really cool because that’s not always the case in a Nashville room,” HARDY excitedly reflects. “She’s really big on the dynamic of the song and like, ‘Ooh right here, we should stop here and have a cool part right here’.”

The ‘wait in the truck’ crooner expands, “She’s just very involved in the entire process of the song. Super, super talented. I can’t say enough about Ella, she’s really creative.”

Both HARDY and Langley are musical architects: their vision is in the finer details as much as it is in the main theme. Given the success they’ve had together, we’re hoping there's more to come on HARDY’s forthcoming ‘concept’ album.

Featured photography by Laura Halse for Holler

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