Pop Ghost

Melanie Amaro. A woman who appears to be passionate about singing but was marginally fucked over by the industry. Melanie won the inaugural season of X Factor USA in December 2011 after initially being dismissed at the Top 32 mark. She was ultimately brought back by judge and producer Simon Cowell – for a riveting storyline, I’m sure – and the rest is history. By winning X Factor USA, Amaro received a recording contract worth $5,000,000 and a starring role in a Pepsi commercial due to air during The Super Bowl. Well, only one of those two things happened…

From the jump, it became obvious that Melanie Amaro was not going to have the same skyrocketing effect that American Idol’s Kelly Clarkson did when she won her show in 2002. Melanie signed with Epic, Sony and Syco when she won X Factor USA and released her first song in 2012 – a dance cover of Otis Redding/Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect.’ While the song did feature in her Pepsi commercial during Super Bowl XLVI on NBC, it only managed to scrape by at #3 on Billboard’s Dance Chart. Which is not the type of response you want for a new artist who debuted during the Super Bowl!

Her first original song, ‘Don’t Fail Me Now’ (#8 on Billboard’s Dance Chart), didn’t fare much better and it was odd that her labels/management team were trying to market her as a dance artist and not a pop star or R&B singer. Eventually, they figured out what everyone else was thinking and Amaro returned at the end of the year with a track titled ‘Love Me Now,’ which peaked at #27 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Chart and was marketed as the lead single from her upcoming album which was rumored to be titled ‘Truly.’ The following single, ‘Long Distance,’ failed to chart on every major market and ‘Truly’ was scrapped by 2013.

But Amaro didn’t come this far just to come this far! She emerged as an independent artist in 2014 and signed with Moorehouse Music Group, LLC. She started touring and producing covers of popular songs and really tried to give music another go. Her first song as indie singer, ‘Fuel My Fire,’ featured Fabulous and took the #1 spot on Billboard’s Independent Chart. ‘Fuel My Fire’ was also set to be the lead single off her debut EP, but that catalog failed to materialize the same way ‘Truly’ did. Unencumbered, Amaro continued to release solo material up until 2020 with songs including ‘Dust,’ ‘I’m Done,’ ‘The One’ and features on Rocki Boulis’ Girl Code and Rawle’s Broken Love.

Melanie Amaro is still active on social media and occasionally posts covers of other peoples’ hits, since she never had one of her own. She’s a beautiful mother of three and seems to be enjoying life… even without the $5,000,000 that was promised to her in 2011. Did her label ever think they weren’t marketing her right or pumping enough media attention into her to recoup any budgetary costs? I think that’s on them and not on her, but she still got the shit end of the stick. I don’t think she harbors ill will, however, because it appears that Amaro has a deep personal connection with her religion. With that said, maybe she should try moving to gospel music since dance and R&B didn’t work out?