More than 14 months after winning a $5 million recording contract with Epic Records, and as The X Factor prepares for season-three auditions, the show’s inaugural winner, Melanie Amaro, is still album-less.
Truly, the 20-year-old singer’s anticipated debut, once was due to be out within months of her December 2011 X Factor win, then was pushed back to late 2012, then March 2013, and now, the label tells The Hollywood Reporter, the album has "no release date scheduled as of yet."
And what of season-one’s crop of contenders?
Chris Rene, Rachel Crow, Josh Krajcik and now, Marcus Canty -- who will release his EP, This Is … Marcus Canty, through Epic Records/Syco Music on March 5 -- all have product on the market. In fact, fans can listen to Canty’s album ahead of its release exclusively on THR’s sister site Billboard.com.
Rene’s first studio album, released Oct. 2, debuted at No. 55 on the Billboard 200, and while his singles have gained only modest traction in the U.S., the 30-year-old has a slew of bona fide hits in New Zealand, including “Young Homie,” “Trouble” and “Rockin’ With You.”
Crow, meanwhile, had big news to break last week. The cherub-faced 15-year-old announced that she'll voice a featured character in the forthcoming animated film Rio 2, playing the daughter of Oscar winner Anne Hathaway.
As for Krajcik, the season-one runner-up told THR on Feb. 20 that his full-length is due out via BMG in April.
This all begs the question (yet again): Where in the world is Amaro?
Her journey to the top was promising at first, with a high-profile Pepsi ad co-starring Elton John and Flava Flav debuting during the 2012 Super Bowl. Simultaneously, Epic released Amaro’s cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” which never made it onto the Billboard Hot 100, though it did reach No. 3 on the Dance Club/Airplay radio chart.
Amaro’s subsequent singles “Don’t Fail Me Now,” “Love Me Now” and “Long Distance” didn’t register with fans either, as even a performance on season two of X Factor failed to boost sales of any track.
Adding insult to injury, there was not even a whisper of Amaro’s name during season two’s X Factor finale, which lauded the success of U.K. competitors One Direction, Leona Lewis, Cher Lloyd and more -- a fact that an embarrassed Simon Cowell himself couldn't deny hours later. When THR asked the show's executive producer and creator why Amaro was not mentioned, his answer was short and confounding: “It wasn’t deliberate.”
Still, it seems Truly is languishing in major-label limbo. Asked about the lengthy delay in a recent interview with The Sun Sentinel, Amaro admitted that she hadn’t found a “set sound” yet for her music.
“I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed that I continue to grow when it comes to my singles and that they continue to progress and get higher and hopefully make Billboard charts and get nominations and all that good stuff," she said.
I put the blame more on Epic than XFactor. It's not just Melanie who's struggling over there. All that talk LA Reid was doing about making Epic great was just that...talk.
Poor girl, they already gave her okay material and then pushed her labum back and back and back. Get the girl in the studio with some more urban oriented producers, but with a more fun touch, and let her shine in her own way
She doesn't have the x factor imo but they are giving her trashy material. That seems to be the case with most talent show winners these days. If they don't have the right song, they don't have anything
Well, Epic is handling her terribly. They shouldn't even be giving her Pop bops. Give her urban or R&B oriented songs with a little touch of pop and those ballads where her voice would shine. But honestly, I don't think she's going to make it big.
IF they haven't given up on her they should scrap her album and start fresh with a strictly R&B, ballad-heavy album that focuses on the vocals since that's her main selling-point.
She needs to find a sound, do some features and work within the industry for a bit, just because she won doesn't mean she's going to be propelled into stardom. Release an EP or something, do some covers. Just do something.
And what of season-one’s crop of contenders?
The X Factor has been a massive mess in the US.
I did use Respect for a little bit, but I was already over Melanie after a while
