Expect to be hearing a lot more about 19 year old songstress Melanie Amaro (pictured, left) in the years ahead, as the Florida-born singer took out the inaugural US season of global talent search The X Factor.
Mentored by the show’s creator Simon Cowell and lauded for her powerhouse vocal performances by other judges LA Reid, Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul, the singer had earlier been booted out of the competition, but was offered a wild card entry by Cowell, who admitted he’d made a grave mistake by omitting her from the top 16.
Melanie performed a cover of Beyonce’s Dreamgirls track ‘Listen’ during the show’s run, which prompted Simon to comment, “When I was asked by a lot of people why I was bringing this show to America, it was because I hoped that we were going to find someone like you.” She performed the song again as part of the finale show and will release it as her first single and has picked up a $5 million recording contract.
Check out her grand final performance below;
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