When she was a primary school student in the Virgin Islands, Melanie Amaro would stand in front of a mirror using a comb as a microphone and singing to an imaginary crowd.
But on Dec. 22, the 19-year-old Virgin Islander held a real microphone in front of a live audience and millions of television viewers and won a $5 million recording deal on X Factor USA.
Here, residents gathered to watch in bars and restaurants and at U.P.’s Cineplex, where many spectators wore shirts with Ms. Amaro’s picture on them.
Her VI relatives have been following her performances on the show since she auditioned nine months ago, according to her aunt, Yoland Franklyn. On the day of the finale, many of them watched at U.P.’s as Ms. Amaro competed with two other finalists, Chris Rene and Josh Krajcik.
All three competitors had risen to the top out of thousands of hopefuls as young as 13.
During her finale, Ms. Amaro sang “Listen,” by Beyonce, a song she also sung during her successful audition.
Shortly after she performed, a video aired of her grandmother wishing her luck and congratulating her from a beach in the VI. As soon as Ms. Amaro saw her grandmother, she began to cry.
Ms. Amaro’s aunt said, “Our family is proud, yet humbled, by this blessing that Melanie has been granted. We always knew that her singing would excel to a higher level, but I don’t think any of us ever realised how soon she would get to live her dream.”
Apart from her ability to woo people with her voice, Ms. Amaro has a very welcoming personality, Ms. Franklyn explained.
“Melanie has always been very caring and compassionate growing up. She lived with my parents [the late Inspector Thomas Wilson Sylvester and his wife Catherine] and my other siblings, and later on with me,” Ms. Franklyn said.
While living with her aunt, Ms. Amaro attended the BVI High School before moving to live with her parents in Florida.
“If she told me 50 sentences in any given moment, 40 of them would have been, ‘Aunty, Yoland, you okay,’ or ‘I love you, Aunty,’” Ms. Franklyn said.
On Wednesday, Ms. Amaro signed a deal with Epic Records, an American record label headed by X Factor judge L.A. Reid.
“Opportunities like this only come once in a blue moon, and it is her time to shine. It so happens that this year we’ll be having a blue moon, too,” Ms. Franklyn said.
Premier Dr. Orlando Smith congratulated the former resident on her win. “We are proud of her, and we look forward to her presence here in the territory, the place she called home during most of her childhood,” Dr. Smith said.