Melanie Amaro Biography

Melanie Ann Amaro (born June 26, 1992) is an American-born British Virgin Islands popstar who won the first season of American television series The X Factor in 2011, securing a $5 million recording contract with Epic Records.

Amaro was born in Miami, Florida, in the United States and was raised in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. She is the daughter of Hipolito Amaro and Debra Sylvester Amaro. At age eleven, she started singing in school musicals, church choirs and sweet sixteens. Amaro attended DnD Music Learning Center, Enid Scatliffe Pre-Primary School, Althea Scatliffe Primary School, BVI High School and graduated from Plantation High School in 2010.

The X Factor

Amaro auditioned for the 2011 season of the talent show before judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger and L.A. Reid in 2011, singing "Listen" by Beyoncé Knowles. 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, Cowell surprised her at her Florida home, inviting her back to the competition after deciding he had made a 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 and a week later was declared winner,taking the $5 Million recording contract with Sony Records which is the largest guaranteed prize in television history. As part of the prize, she will also appearing in a Pepsi commercial set to air during Super Bowl XLVI on NBC.