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"X Factor USA winner Melanie Amaro has said that she hopes to surprise fans with her debut album.  The 19-year-old won the $5 million recording contract prize on the season finale of the Fox singing competition in December and recently signed a deal with Epic Records.   Speaking to PA about her first record, she said: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ll still have the big ballads, but then I&amp;#039;m hoping to throw something out there that fans won&amp;#039;t expect so they&amp;#039;ll be like, &amp;#039;Oh my God, there&amp;#039;s like different stages of her or different, like, genres that she can do&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;I can do lots of different types of genres of music and I wasn&amp;#039;t able to show that a lot on the show, but I&amp;#039;ll hopefully be able to do that on the album.&amp;quot; Amaro will work on her music at Epic Records alongside X Factor judge LA Reid, who is the CEO and Chairman of the label. She has also said that Simon Cowell, her mentor on the show, will continue to serve as her mentor and remain involved in her career, which includes an upcoming Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi.   Amaro has also said that she would be interested in working with her &amp;quot;idol&amp;quot; Mariah Carey, who had initially been slated to serve as a guest mentor on X Factor, and Ne-Yo.  Amaro&amp;#039;s deal with Epic Records was announced this week, with the teenager describing the opportunity as a &amp;quot;dream come true&amp;quot;.  Reid added in a statement: &amp;quot;I joined The X Factor to be able to discover undeniable talent such as Melanie. I am pleased that she is now signed to Epic Records because I believe we have only scratched the surface on uncovering her talent and her inevitable journey to super-stardom.&amp;quot; The X Factor has been renewed for a second season on Fox.  &amp;gt; Read Digital Spy&amp;#039;s full X Factor headlines Watch Melanie Amaro perform &amp;#039;Listen&amp;#039; on the X Factor finale below:       "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-factor-us/news/a358797/x-factor-winner-melanie-amaro-wants-to-surprise-with-debut-album/>