Caleb Kennedy (2005-) is an American country singer-songwriter from Roebuck, Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Kennedy started his musical career by performing local shows in Roebuck before acquiring nationwide recognition as a contestant on American Idol in early 2021. Kennedy advanced far into the competition because of his distinctive, raspy voice and his creative talent, as he performed several of his original songs on the show. On 31 March 2021, he released his first EP.
Kennedy supported the Republican president Donald Trump, donning a "Make America Great Again" hat while performing his original song "These Ol' Boots" in a 13 May 2020 Instagram post. In addition, his song "Nowhere" mentioned "We got rebel blood running through our veins," an allusion to the Confederacy, of which South Carolina was the first state. On 12 May 2021, he was disqualified from American Idol after a video surfaced in which Kennedy posed with a friend wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, and he wrote an Instagram post apologizing for his actions, acknowledging that his youth was not an excuse, and expressing his hope that he "(could) one day regain your trust in who I am and have your respect." In February 2022, however, he was involved in a fatal DUI crash which killed a 54-year-old man, and he was granted bond in May 2022.