Melanie Amaro Turns Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” Into A Club Jam

Becky Bain | February 2, 2012 4:49 pm

With most of the recent news surrounding The X Factor having to do with the pink slip parade unleashed upon half its on-air talent, we almost forgot about the woman who actually won the competition, Melanie Amaro. The singer, who is signed to judge LA Reid’s Epic Records, has a new single out, “Respect”, which samples Aretha Franklin’s classic song with an additional dancefloor beat and an overdose of synths. Listen to it below.

Melanie Amaro – “Respect”

This is actually better than we expected. The typical debut single from an American Idol winner is something sappy, inspirational, and ballady. This is none of those things, shelving any sort of “This Is My Moment” emotion in favor of pure club euphoria. Sure, the tune could have maybe, I dunno, a verse or two, or stick to just sampling Aretha’s song instead of making it the entire draw. But still — it’s peppy, and doesn’t cause us any second hand embarrassment.

Melanie’s single will appear in her upcoming Super Bowl ad for Pepsi, which features Elton John. The singer discussed the concept of the ad with Entertainment Weekly:

I’m a singing princess warrior. [Laughs] And me being the singing princess warrior, I have to try to get the entire kingdom some of the sacred treasure, and the sacred treasure is, of course, Pepsi. I have to go through the talent part of the being in front of the king at his court [to get the treasure], and my talent was, of course, to sing. So I sing, I blow his mind, and I get everybody to have some of the Pepsi. I don’t think I’m going to tell you any more than that. I think I’ll let everybody wait until they see the commercial, because there’s some special surprise guests in there that I think everybody is going to enjoy.

Is Melanie Amaro’s single worthy of your respect? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments below.