Country singer Caleb Lee Hutchinson went from obscurity to stardom in a matter of months in 2018 as a contestant on the popular televised talent search American Idol. Possessing a rich, warm, expressive baritone voice made to order for country ballads, the Georgia-born Hutchinson had several years of regional performing under his belt before his first major-label single, "Johnny Cash Heart," put him on the charts when he was just 19. Caleb Lee Hutchinson was born in Dallas, Georgia on March 2, 1999. He was passionate about music from an early age; when he was five years old, his grandmother bought a karaoke machine, and young Caleb Lee loved singing through the machine, especially on the songs of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. When he was 12 years old, Hutchinson learned to play the guitar, and a year later he began writing his own songs. Soon he was regularly performing in and around Atlanta, and he opened shows for T. Graham Brown, the Kentucky Headhunters, and Bo Bice. In 2015, Hutchinson first performed for a nationwide audience when he appeared on Season 9 of the music competition series The Voice; he sang the Garth Brooks hit "The Dance," but none of the judges turned their chairs for his performance, and he was soon eliminated. Undeterred, he recorded an independent EP titled Country Music that he released in 2016. In 2018, Hutchinson took another shot at the nationwide stage when he auditioned for the revival of the popular music competition show American Idol. This time, his luck was much better; he made it into the main competition and ended the season as runner-up to grand prize winner Maddie Poppe. The media also focused on Hutchinson as he experienced a dramatic weight loss during his run on American Idol (he began a diet and exercise regimen several months before he was accepted on the show, and by the time the season was over, he estimated that he'd lost 85 pounds), and enjoyed a budding romance with Maddie Poppe, which they revealed to the world shortly after she was named winner. During his final appearance on American Idol, Hutchinson sang the song "Johnny Cash Heart," which was soon released as a single, debuting at number 16 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart. In June 2019, he released the eponymous EP, Caleb Lee Hutchinson, featuring production by Sugarland's Kristian Bush. Included was the song "Left of Me," as well as a cover of Post Malone's "Better Now." ~ Mark Deming