This is according to her mother Deborah Sylvester Amaro, who along with her husband Hipolito Amaro, was in the Virgin Islands for the weekend.

Mrs Amaro, in an exclusive interview with Virgin Islands News Online, said she could not say exactly when Melanie would come to the Virgin Islands as she is currently very busy doing recordings but knows her daughter desires to come to personally express her appreciation to all the people of the VI, who supported her.

“I know that she wants to be able to come back to personally thank the people here for voting for her, holding her in high esteem and going to the multi-purpose complex and holding that event they had for her. I know she wants to come back and do something but right now we can’t tell you when it’s going to happen but it will happen,” Mrs. Amaro said.

For winning the X Factor, Melanie, who was born in Florida but spent a number of her childhood years in the Virgin Islands, also won a $5M recording contract with Simon Cowell’s Sony Music-owned record label SyCo and the chance to perform a Pepsi Commercial at this year’s Super Bowl, which she did with the legendary Elton John.

Mrs. Amaro also said Melanie was holding her own in the new found world of fame. “She is excited about recording because that is what she is doing right now. There is a lot of recording going on so she is in the studio constantly. Aside from her being tired at times she is holding up pretty good. She is enjoying it.”

Both of Melanie’s parents, Deborah and Hipolito Amaro, say Melanie’s achievement has been a life changing experience for them as well. “I am grateful and try to remain humble but it really has brought some changes about. There are a lot of people who recognise me and I try to tell them thank you for supporting, loving the family and voting for my daughter but it has just been overwhelming at times. We try to stay grounded so that we don’t lose sight of the blessings that were bestowed upon us,” said Mr. Amaro.

“We have a lot of people that meet us and stop us because obviously they recognise us from the show but we try to live our normal everyday life and try not to let it get the better part of us...I don’t let it get to my head,” she added.

Meanwhile, the recent and sudden death of Whitney Houston was a devastating period for Melanie as only three days before she died she had met the singing icon. “Melanie and her (Whitney) had the same throat doctor and they were both there at the same time and she had called me and say mom guess who I just met and I said who and she said I just met Whitney Houston.”

The proud mother added that Melanie was crying and Houston cupped her face and said “honey don’t cry you have to carry the torch”. “Whitney told her that she knew who she was and that she was rooting for her on the X Factor show. That Saturday when Whitney passed it really devastated Melanie because she was actually one of her icons.”

In a previous interview with this news agency, Mrs. Amaro had revealed her daughter is a “wonderful and humble young lady”.

Giving a recap of Melanie’s early singing career, Mrs. Amaro traces it back to her pregnancy and Melanie’s infant stage. “When I was pregnant with her, we are Christians, when I went for a revival meeting, the minister that was preaching called me up out of the crowd and told me, he put a song in my baby’s heart and she will always be singing,” Mrs. Amaro had recalled, noting that she was seven months pregnant and didn’t even know she was having a girl baby.

She recalled when Melanie was just about six months old she would get up around 2 a.m. and would sing. “We don’t know what she is singing and she would go back to sleep and she hasn’t stopped singing since.”

She said her daughter has never really entered competitions before but was always singing at weddings, churches and other events.

Regarding her entrance into X-Factor in April 2011 and how she decided to get into it, Mrs. Amaro had revealed that she pushed her daughter to enter into the competition and today is proud of that decision.