What's your favourite/(the best) backend language?

What's your favourite/ the best backend language? Apologies for bundling a few together. Can only have 4 options. Please state if you choose other, and if possible your experiences with it.

I recently read this article php A fractal of bad design and wondered what people actually think about backend languages.

My company uses PHP and after reading this I'm inclined to go with something more like java or python, especially after comparing it to my own gripes with PHP and frameworks.

I know the paper was written a few years ago and thus some of it is no longer relevant but it has updates up to PHP 5.5 so it's only missing 7. And version 5 is still the most widely used. Also, given the issues highlighted in the paper how did PHP become such a widely adopted language, if there are better languages out there?

To some extent I understand that this is really based on what the products/projects purpose is and how a language is best suited for that job. And I know that all languages have their highlights and holes but some, it would seem, have more holes than others.