After taking home the title of the first ever The X Factor USA winner, Melanie Amaro has found her musical home with Epic Records, the label announced today.
Amaro’s epic voice snagged her the $5 million recording contract promised by X Factor creator and judge Simon Cowell along with sponsor Sony, which owns Epic Records. And the decision to go with Epic had to do with the involvement of another X Factor judge: L.A. Reid, who is the Chairman and CEO of the label.
“We all agreed that Epic would be the right fit for Melanie,” Cowell said in a statement. “L.A. made it clear that he wanted the opportunity to work with her, and with his track record, you can’t say no to that.”
Reid became chairman of Epic in July of 2011, after leaving Island Def Jam to join The X Factor. The change came at a time of major restructuring, and the label currently hosts acts including Outkast, Ciara and Avril Lavigne.
In a statement, Reid says that he “joined The X Factor to be able to discover undeniable talent such as Melanie,” and that the show “only scratched the surface on uncovering her talent and her inevitable journey to super-stardom.”
It may be a little while until we see Amaro’s Epic deal bear fruit, but fans have something else they can look forward to on the horizon: Her Pepsi Super Bowl commercial on February 5.
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Meghan hails from Walla Walla, WA, the proud home of the world’s best sweet onions and Adam West, the original Batman. An avid grammarian and over-analyzer, you can usually find her thinking too hard about plot devices in favorites like The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and How I Met Your Mother. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys drawing, shopping, trying to be funny (and often failing), and not understanding the whole Twilight thing. She’s got a BA in English and Studio Art from Whitman College, which makes her a professional arguer, daydreamer, and doodler.
