of Knight's set and would close the show by singing a duet with Knight. When speaking about her time performing with Knight, Aaliyah said "it was a great learning experience". She also recalled: "I learned a lot about being on stage and how audiences react differently to various songs". According to her: "I would stand in the middle of the stage, sing, and just walk off, Gladys said to me, 'You can't do that, you have to work the audience, make them feel what you feel'." When Aaliyah was 12, Hankerson would take her to Vanguard Studios in her hometown of Detroit to record demos with record producer and Vanguard Studios' owner Michael J. Powell. In an interview, Powell stated: "At the time, Barry was trying to get Aaliyah a deal with MCA, and he came to me to make her demos." During her time recording with Powell, Aaliyah recorded several covers, such as "The Greatest Love of All", "Over the Rainbow", and "My Funny Valentine", which she had performed on Star Search. Eventually, Hankerson started shopping Aaliyah around to various labels, such as Warner Bros. and MCA Records; according to Hankerson, although the executives at both labels liked her voice, they ultimately didn't sign her. After several failed attempts with getting Aaliyah signed to a record label, Hankerson then shifted his focus on getting her signed to Jive Records, the label that R. Kelly, an artist he managed during that time, was signed to. According to former Jive Records A&R Jeff Sledge, Jive's former owner Clive Calder didn't want to sign Aaliyah at first, because he felt that a 12-year-old was too young to be signed to the label. Sledge stated in an interview: "The guy who owned Jive at the time, Clive Calder, he's also an A&R person by trade. He was basically head of the A&R department. Barry kept shopping her to him and he saw something, but he said, ‘She’s not ready, she’s still young, she needs to be developed more.’ Barry would go back and develop her more". After developing Aaliyah more as an artist, Hankerson finally signed a distribution deal with Jive, and he signed her to his own label Blackground Records. When Aaliyah finally got a chance to audition for the record executives at Jive, she sang "Vision of Love" by Mariah Carey. Recording and production By late 1992, Aaliyah was signed to