During a conference call with reporters, the show's first U.S. champion also reveals why she wouldn't trade Simon Cowell for the other judges as her mentor and who her biggest competition was.
- Dec 24, 2011
AceShowbiz - Winning the very first season of "The X Factor (US)" on Thursday, December 22 night, Melanie Amaro took home $5 million recording contract and a Pepsi Super Bowl commercial. The morning after being crowned the champion, the singer from Tortola, British Virgin Islands revealed what she plans to do with her prize and it involves a foot massager.
The 19-year-old told reporters during the Friday conference call, "I'm definitely going to buy myself a foot massager and buy my mom a new house." Asked if she's going to use the money to help her family, she replied, "As of right now, what I can help my family with - my family has always been that support for me, and whatever I can help my family with, I will most definitely help my family with."
Speaking about her mentor Simon Cowell, Amaro insisted she wouldn't trade him for the other judges. "I don't think that I would have gone very, very far at all," she admitted when responding to question if she could've won with one of the other judges as her mentor, "because I needed Simon to be that tough judge that he was with me in order for me to grow - to get to a higher place. So for me, I needed Simon. I needed Simon."
On what she did after initially being cut before the live shows, the teen singer said she went back to working. "I went back to doing the same old thing I was doing before, and I wasn't too happy," she shared. "I was a little miserable, but after getting a chance to come back - after Simon told me I'm coming back - I felt so, 'Wow, I really wasn't meant to be doing any of the stuff I've been doing. I'm meant to sing.' "
Amaro also said she has no hard feelings for Simon for originally thinking she couldn't win the competition. "He was so sincere about coming back to my house and apologizing about everything, that I could not stay mad at all," she explained. "No. I was hurt at first, but you know, I forgave and forgot and let go and I grew really at peace with it."
Asked about her biggest competition, Amaro admitted, "For me, I thought that Chris Rene was my biggest competition. I don't know, I guess it was just because everyone thought he was -well not thought, but - everyone knew that he was an original artist and that he wrote his own music and was original and he connected well with everyone. So I figured that was my biggest competition."
