Be Her

Album: Dandelion (2026)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • In "Be Her," Ella Langley looks at her own her messy, image-obsessed reality and compares herself to a woman who's living a life of simplicity and emotional clarity.
  • The chorus, built around the confession, "I just wanna be her so bad, it hurts so bad," turns it inward. Rather than envying the other woman, Langley confronts the distance between the chaotic life she lives and her counterpart's stable, drama-free existence.
  • Langley wrote the song with Hardy, Jordan Schmidt and Smith Ahnquist. Langley previously teamed up with Hardy and Schmidt to pen her single "Never Met Anyone Like You."

    Hardy said he "knew 'Be Her' was a hit the second we started writing it," adding that the song "basically wrote itself" and they were done in about 30 minutes.
  • Langley produced the song with fellow country singer and close friend Miranda Lambert, along with Ben West. Ben West plays Wurlitzer piano, and Jordan Schmidt supplies percussion. The other musicians are:

    David Dorn: synthesizer, celeste, Hammond organ.
    Tom Bukovac: electric guitar.
    Ben Flanders: electric guitar.
    Charlie Worsham: banjo, acoustic guitar.
    Spencer Cullum: pedal steel guitar.
    Rachel Loy: bass guitar.
    Aksel Coe: drums, percussion
  • The "Be Her" video was co-directed by Ella Langley and frequent visual collaborator Wales Toney. The clip leans into a bold red aesthetic: Langley performs while off-screen hands pass her objects referenced in the lyric - a glass of wine, a cigarette, a single rose - mirroring the feel of juggling expectations in real life.
  • "Be Her" appears on Langley's sophomore album, Dandelion, a project built around themes of personal growth, lived experience and self-examination. Within the album's broader storyline, the track functions as one of the clearest statements of the album's growth theme, zeroing in on self-comparison and the painful but hopeful process of becoming the person you admire.
  • When "Be Her" reached #1 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart, it delivered songwriter Smith Ahnquist his first chart-topper after 15 years under a publishing deal. The long-awaited breakthrough was especially meaningful given his close friendship with Hardy, who refers to Ahnquist as his best friend - he even got him to officiate his wedding.

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