Melanie Amaro Biography

Melanie Ann Amaro (born June 26, 1992) is a British Virgin Islander recording artist who won the first season of The X Factor USA in 2011, securing a $5 million recording contract with Syco Music and Epic Records.

Early life

Amaro was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and raised on Tortola, British Virgin Islands since age three. Amaro was sent to the British Virgin Islands to live with her grandmother Catherine, after her parents Hipolito Amaro and Debra Sylvester Amaro felt they did not have the means to provide for her. Amaro would only see her parents during summer vacations and Christmas breaks. She also has two brothers named Mark and Mike, and a younger sister named Maya. Her mother Debra recalls that when her daughter was about six months old, she would get up at around two o'clock in the morning and would start singing in her crib. Furthermore, from an early age, Amaro would sing around her house using a hairbrush as a microphone. Melanie realized she fell in love with singing and acting at around age eleven, and credits her mother for pushing her to follow her singing dreams. Amaro never entered any singing competitions as a child, but performed at weddings, churches, and other events. Melanie attended the Althea Scatliffe Primary School and later went on to Elmore Stout high school, formally known as BVI high school. Melanie moved to Florida at age 15 and graduated from Plantation High School in 2010. In March 2012, her high school chorus teacher, Gary Rivenbark, whom Amaro credits with the help of shaping her voice, died of lymphoma at age 48.

Music career

2011: The X Factor

In June 2011, Amaro was persuaded by her mother to audition for the first season of The X Factor USA. She auditioned in front of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger and L.A. Reid, singing "Listen" by Beyoncé Knowles. She previously tried auditioning at her local Fox affiliate for a "fast pass", but was not well received by producers there and subsequently auditioned with the general public at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Florida. After becoming one of the Top 32 finalists, she performed Michael Jackson's "Will You Be There" in the judges' house, in front of her mentor Cowell. Amaro was initially not chosen to be part of the Top 16 and was eliminated from the girls' category. However, after 2 weeks Cowell surprised her at her Florida home, inviting her back to the competition after deciding he had made "a huge mistake" in not including her.

Amaro progressed to the live shows in Cowell's girls' category, along with Rachel Crow, Drew, Tiah Tolliver and Simone Battle. The addition of Amaro took the total number of qualifiers for the first live show to 17. On December 15, Amaro won a place in the final along with Chris Rene and Josh Krajcik. The following week, she was declared the winner. Her prize was a $5 million recording contract with Syco Music and a Sony Music label, which is the largest guaranteed prize in television history. Shortly after winning, Sony Music label Epic Records announced that they had officially signed Amaro, who will be working alongside L.A. Reid at the label. In addition to the contract, Amaro also appeared in a Pepsi commercial alongside Sir Elton John, which aired during Super Bowl XLVI on NBC.

Performances on The X Factor

Melanie Amaro performed the following songs on The X Factor:

Show	Theme	Song	Original artist	Order	Result
Audition	Free choice	"Listen"	Beyoncé	N/A	Through to bootcamp
Bootcamp 1	Group performance 1	"Run to You"	Whitney Houston	N/A	Through to bootcamp 2
Bootcamp 2	Group performance 2	"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"	U2	N/A	Through to bootcamp 3
Bootcamp 3	Solo performance	Not aired		N/A	Through to judges' houses
Judges' houses	Free choice	"Will You Be There"	Michael Jackson	N/A	Advanced via Wild Card
Live show 1	Free choice	"I Have Nothing"	Whitney Houston	17	Saved by Simon Cowell
Live show 2	Free choice	"Desperado"	Eagles	7	Safe (4th)
Live show 3	Songs from movies	"Man in the Mirror"	Michael Jackson	7	Safe (2nd)
Live show 4	Rock	"Everybody Hurts"	R.E.M.	5	Safe (2nd)
Live show 5	Giving thanks	"The World's Greatest"	R. Kelly	3	Safe (2nd)
Live show 6	Songs by Michael Jackson	"Earth Song"	Michael Jackson	7	Safe (1st)
Live show 7	Dance music hits	"Someone Like You"	Adele	1	Safe (1st)
	Save me songs	"When You Believe"	Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston	6
Semi-final	Pepsi challenge songs	"Hero"	Mariah Carey	3	Safe (1st)
	"Get me to the final" songs	"Feeling Good"	Cy Grant	7
Final	Celebrity duets	Duet "I Believe I Can Fly" with R. Kelly	R. Kelly	3	Winner (1st)
	Winner's song	"Listen"	Beyoncé	6
	Christmas songs	"All I Want for Christmas Is You"	Mariah Carey	1

^{^}Amaro did not originally make it through to the live shows, but was later brought back as a wildcard.

2012–present: Post The X Factor, Truly

Amaro will be releasing her debut album on 2013. It will feature music styles different from what people are used to her performing. Amaro's Pepsi commercial aired during Super Bowl XLVI on NBC as part of her X Factor prize. The commercial features Amaro singing a dance cover of "Respect", alongside Elton John, Flavor Flav, and Annie Ilonzeh. The song was released as a music download on February 2, 2012, although Amaro confirmed that the song does not serve as her debut single. As of March 29, 2012, Melanie's cover of "Respect" has reached the #3 spot on the Billboard Dance/Club Chart. On August 1, Amaro released her debut single "Don't Fail Me Now", written by Livvi Franc and produced by Rodney Jerkins. Amaro's album was set for release on December 4, 2012. On 19 October 2012 Amaro premiered the music video for "Don't Fail Me Now" on her official VEVO account. The song failed to chart and the album was pushed back to 2013. She performed a new single, "Long Distance", live on the The X Factor on December 6, 2012. The song was released on December 3, 2012. Since then rumors began to circulate that Amaro had been dropped from Epic Records after it appeared that her name had been removed from the label's website, but a rep from the label confirmed that the website didn't always contain a full roster of artists and that Amaro was still part of Epic. Truly was rescheduled for March 2013, but was never released. While season 2 winner Tate Stevens debut album was released in April 2013 under RCA Nashville, Amaro's label has stated that her album has no confirmed release date.

In August 2013, Amaro performed in Indonesia for RCTI's 24th anniversary television special, X Factor Around the World along with Samantha Jade, Jahméne Douglas, The Collective, Novita Dewi and Fatin Shidqia. Amaro performed her new single "Long Distance" and then "The World's Greatest" as a duet with Fatin Shidqia.

Discography

Albums

• Truly (TBA)

Singles and charting songs

Year	Title	Peak chart positions			Album
		US Hot 100	US Adult R&B	US Hot Club/Dance
2012	"Don't Fail Me Now"	—	—	8	Truly
	"Love Me Now"	—	27	—
	"Long Distance"	—	—	—

Notes

• ^{^} "Love Me Now" was released as the b-side to "Don't Fail Me Now".

Other charted songs

Year	Title	Peak chart positions	Album
		US Dance
2012	"Respect"	3	Non-album song

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
2012	Teen Choice Awards 2012	Female Reality Star	The X Factor