"X Factor” winner MELANIE AMARO sang her heart out for the $5 million top prize so she can save her family from the poor house.
“It’s really important for our entire family that Melanie wins ‘The X Factor’ – it would not only change her life, but ours as well,” her dad Hipolito told The ENQUIRER prior to last night’s victory.
“Of course, she can do whatever she wants with her winnings, but we’re confident she’ll do the right thing and help us out.”
It’s been a difficult stretch for the singer’s family, whose Fort Lauderdale-area home was in foreclosure most of last year.
“In 2009, I lost my job as a property management maintenance worker after the company I worked for was sold,” said Hipolito, who has a family of six to support.
“Bills were piling uphigher than the palm trees outside our house. My wife was working, but she was bringing in just enough to put food on our table.”
The family home went into foreclosure before Hipolito, 47, finally found another maintenance job and began struggling to get back on his feet.
But things should get easier now that Melanie has won “The X Factor’s” $5 million recording contract.
Melanie’s mom Debra, 46, a customer service rep, said: “We live paycheck to paycheck, but we always manage to make it.”
Yet, Debra knew Melanie was going to be a famous singer even before her birth – when an evangelist broke the happy news.
“He told me that God had put a song in my baby’s heart, that she was always going to be singing,” Debra recalled.
“And he was right!”
