She actually was going to make it. But...
Believe it or not, not
every singer had to be a coked up prostitute in the 80s to make it big.
The timing was also awful. If she were outed as a mutant after she became a gigastar that could fill stadiums singing Ba-Ba-Blacksheep, things would have played out different.
Anyway, she had the talent so it all came down to timing and chance for her success.
But with writers loving misery and wanting metaphors for the entertainment industry, that chance was zero unless she went to Xavier for a better life.
Emma had a similar thing where she could have gone to Xavier, but chose to do things herself and claw her way through a miserable path.
The lesson: always go to the rich bald guy and his school of psycho outcasts.