Ella Langley’s Dandelion headlining run—beginning in May and ending in August in Texas—pairs every date with fellow women artists as openers, including Gabriella Rose, Kaitlin Butts, Avery Anna, Laci Kaye Booth, and Madeline Edwards. The move lands in a wider
When Ella Langley resumes her Dandelion headlining tour this weekend, the most visible part of the plan isn’t the stage lighting or the setlist—it’s the lineup waiting in front of it.
For every date, Langley has recruited women to open. The tour includes Gabriella Rose. Kaitlin Butts. Avery Anna. Laci Kaye Booth. and Madeline Edwards. and it kicked off in May before concluding this August in Texas. There are also male country artists—Dylan Marlowe and Kameron Marlowe—scheduled for select dates.
The choices matter because country music tours have long tended to treat opening slots like a risk-managed on-ramp: pick artists who already show strong performance on country radio. reduce the chance that the crowd walks away before the headliner. Langley’s approach. drawn toward female artists regardless of where they’ve landed on the airwaves. puts the spotlight where the industry often doesn’t.
Langley’s momentum has been hard to ignore since she released “Choosin’ Texas” last year. She surpassed Taylor Swift for the longest-running country Number One. She became the first female artist to top the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay simultaneously. She also took home seven ACM awards.
That kind of breakouts-first success has helped make her “taking a string of fellow female artists out on the road” feel like more than a nice gesture—it reads like a deliberate correction.
Kaitlin Butts. who will be among the opening acts. described Langley as “such a role model for what skyrocketing with grace looks like.” Butts said Langley changed her life after posting a TikTok video using Butts’ “You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead To Me)” trend. Butts added that she’s been offered an acting role in Langley’s iconic music video for “Choosin’ Texas. ” and now she’s been taken on tour as well. “That’s what I love about her. a win for her means a win for all of us women in country music because she’s one of the ones that’s turning around to help the next in line. ” Butts said.
The Dandelion project itself traces back to women who’ve already been pushing back against old formulas. Dandelion was co-produced by Miranda Lambert. who also co-wrote “Choosin’ Texas.” Lambert—and Carrie Underwood—first disrupted the idea of “balancing” a woman headliner with male acts. beginning with Lambert’s 2019 Roadside Bars & Pink Guitar tours. Those runs featured acts including Maren Morris, Ashley McBryde, Elle King, Tenille Townes, and Caylee Hammack. After that, Morris recruited Cassadee Pope, RaeLynn, Kassi Ashton, Hailey Whitters, and Tenille Townes for her GIRL World Tour.
Even when artists succeed, the industry’s gatekeeping doesn’t always move at the same speed. The piece of the picture that keeps showing up is country radio. The work of Book More Women is cited in the summer context here: women are barely represented on major country and Americana festivals. Tortuga is listed at 12.7 percent women, described as a decline from previous years. Under the Big Sky, Railbird, Tailgates n’ Tallboys, and Stagecoach are also all noted as coming in under 15 percent.
In that environment, tournament-style headliner logic can become blunt—radio rotation doesn’t change, festival slots don’t widen, and the women who could use the break often wait. Langley’s tour-opening decisions shift what happens next for artists standing right at the edge.
“The strength it takes to be a woman at the top of this industry is almost unfathomable,” Booth said. “And the grace it takes to turn around and extend a hand to other women along the way is something extraordinary.”
Madeline Edwards—who will open on the Dandelion tour on July 16—brought a different kind of closeness to the story. Edwards had one of Rolling Stone’s best country albums of 2025. and she said she first met Langley at a songwriting festival in Maui a few years back. during one of the most vulnerable times of her life. Edwards said she was grappling with her brother’s worsening mental health when she confided in Langley. “I was disoriented, guilt-ridden, and far from home in the days leading up to his diagnosis,” Edwards said. “I’ll never forget the grace and space she offered a practical stranger as I tried to make sense of it all.”.
Edwards praised Langley not just for taking more women out on the road. but for choosing women who “really have something to say.” She said Langley isn’t just a “girl’s girl” for the aesthetic of it. and that she’s curating a top-to-bottom experience that inspires her audience to really feel something. “Real recognizes real,” Edwards said.
The throughline across the quotes and the lineup is simple: Langley’s Dandelion doesn’t just reward momentum—it redirects it. For an industry where the path to being booked can still depend heavily on who’s already been heard. the tour’s opening roster becomes its own message as the months turn from May into August. and as Texas becomes the final stop of this run.
One thing stays consistent through the facts: this isn’t a tour built around waiting to be picked. It’s a tour built around giving someone else the first step.
Ella Langley Dandelion tour Choosin’ Texas Kaitlin Butts Gabriella Rose Avery Anna Laci Kaye Booth Madeline Edwards Miranda Lambert Carrie Underwood ACM awards country music