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WASHINGTON: A soul-singing college student from Florida plans to buy chicken for the rest of her life with some of the $5 million she won on “The X-Factor,” People magazine reported Friday.
Melanie Amaro, 19, conquered the first US season of Simon Cowell's reality talent show after covering R&B diva Beyonce's “Listen” – the same song she sang at her audition – on its pre-Christmas finale that aired Thursday.
“Life will change a lot,” she told People, saying she looked forward to buying her mother a new house – “The one we live in now sucks” – and a lifetime supply of chicken. “I can't live without it. It's my favorite food,” she said.
Amaro also wins a recording contract and an appearance in a soft drink commercial during American football's much-watched Super Bowl championship in February.
Viewers from all over the United States cast 40 million votes before Amaro emerged the winner. Her rival finalists were Josh Krajcik, 30, a burrito maker, and Chris Rene, 28, a former garbage collector and drug addict.
Cowell had eliminated Amaro from “The X-Factor” earlier in the season, before – in a dramatic twist, with camera in tow – he literally went to her doorstep and invited her back on.
“I said to her, 'I've made a mistake. I admit it. I'm going to give you a second chance',” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Now I'm seeing her behind me, she's got the confidence. And I'm proud of the fact the show found her.”
Cowell, 52, was already a household name in America for his sometimes mean-spirited remarks as a judge on “American Idol” before he brought over “The X Factor” from his native Britain, where it debuted in 2008.
