The X Factor's $5 Million Winner Melanie Amaro: 'I Needed Simon Cowell To Win!'

The 19-year-old singer admits she doesn't know if the judge originally planned to cut her to create drama for TV, but says it doesn't matter

They go together like peanut butter and jelly, like a horse and carriage, like a...oh, you get the idea.

Obviously, we're talking about The X Factor's Melanie Amaro, who won the competition last night, and her mentor Simon Cowell. While on a conference call with reporters, Amaro revealed she wouldn't have won the competition if L.A. Reid, Nicole Scherzinger or Paula Abdul had been her mentor.

Still, we had to know: Has she ever forgiven Cowell for originally sending her home? Plus, what is she planning to do with her $5 million prize? 

When asked if she believed she could've won the competition with one of the other judges as her mentor, Amaro quickly answers, "No. I  don't think I would've gone very far at all because I needed Simon to be that tough judge that he was with me in order for me to grow, to get to a higher place. For me, I needed Simon."

Though he didn't realize it at first when he sent her home from the competition in the final cut before live shows, Cowell needed Amaro as well, which is why he went to her house to invite her back into the competition two weeks after cutting her. Many viewers have wondered if Cowell made a genuine mistake or cut Amaro to create drama. Though she doesn't know the answer to that question, Amaro doesn't care. "All I know is he made a mistake, he apologized about it and I moved on from it," she says. "Look at where I am now. Whatever happened in the past is the past and I'm looking towards the future."

So was it hard for Amaro to forgive her mentor for originally thinking she couldn't win the competition? "No. He was so sincere about coming back to my house and apologizing about everything that I could not stay mad at all," she explains. "I was hurt as first, but I forgave and forget and let go. I really made peace with it."

Still, the cut was a blow to Amaro's confidence, making her believe she wasn't good enough to win the competition. "This is really bad because I should've really believed in myself, but I kept thinking to myself that I wasn't good enough. I constantly kept telling myself that."

The moment everything changed for Amaro? On the Nov. 23 performance show, when she revealed her true Caribbean accent, shocking viewers and the judges. But did it shock the producers? Amaro assures us the moment was not planned at all. "To be honest, that really wasn't planned," she says. "Something came over me during that performance and I said to myself, accept who you are and just speak and I did. When I did, my accent just came out!"

While it wasn't the moment that Amaro finally thought she could win The X Factor, she says it was the moment she "started to believe" in herself. "I was thinking to myself, regardless of anything that I was going to go far whether I won or not because I had accepted myself for who I was."

While Amaro isn't revealing anything about her upcoming album, "I'm going to keep that as a surprise," she says she'd love to collaborate with Mariah Carey, her idol, and Reid. As for her fellow contestans, Amaro says she'd like to record a duet with runner-up Josh Krajcik, Rachel Crowe or Drew, although she admits she felt Chris Rene was her biggest competition. 

Finally, we had to know what Amao was planning to do with her $5 million prize. "I'll definitely buy myself a foot massager and buy my mom a new house!"