WATCHING her life story unfold on stage has, admits Gloria Estefan, been a strange experience. But as the hit show On Your Feet heads into Manchester next week, the international superstar is delighted at the reaction from audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

“People seem to love it,” she said. “That’s the point of the show - to connect with people on a very human level, which is what we’ve always tried to do through our music.

“It’s been phenomenal.”

Packed with hits including Rhythm is Gonna Get You, Don’t Want to Lose You and 1-2-3, Get On Your Feet is tells Gloria and her husband Emilio’s real life love story and their rise from humble beginnings in Cuba to selling more than 100 million records around the world.

The show has been in London’s West End and is now touring the country with Philippa Stefani playing Gloria.

“She is just wonderful,” said Gloria.

Gloria has been heavily involved in On Your Feet from the beginning - the show ran on Broadway for two years - and she’s very proud that the story very much reflects real life.

“It’s all true, although maybe not always at the moment you see it happening on stage, and some of the songs aren’t in chronological order - they’ve been moved around to suit the story,” she said. “The only thing that’s not true is Emilio having a six-pack as he does in the show!”

Seeing herself played by someone else has taken some getting used to.

“It was weird at the beginning, I’ve gotta say,” she said. “But it’s an early version of me so it’s cool. And I’d never say ‘Hey, do it this way’, I just give as much backstory as I can rather than have someone try to clone me. I’m probably the worst judge of who I am because I’m inside myself, not on the outside looking in, and so I don’t know how I come off to other people.”

Although on face value a jukebox musical, On Your Feet doesn’t shy away from the terrible tour bus crash in 1990 which left Gloria with broken vertebrae

“It’s strange because I remember more the aftermath than the actual crash,” she said. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people who have also been involved in accidents and they agree there must be some mechanism in our brains or our spirits where you remember before and after but you don’t remember the actual moment of impact.

“I grew up taking care of my wheelchair-bound father so I knew what my family might have to face with me. I didn’t care about getting back on stage. I just wanted to be independent and walk again.

“Then I started getting all these letters from people. They kept throwing the song Get On Your Feet back in my face and I said to Emilio ‘I never did this for the fame so what if this is the sole reason I became famous? What if I have the opportunity through my perseverance to somehow inspire people?’”

The moment Gloria performed on stage for the first time after the accident was a special one.

“It was euphoric,” she said. “It was how I imagine climbing Mount Everest would feel. I had overcome so many obstacles and I’d worked so hard. It was just amazing.”

Gloria met Emilio in 1975 and even then she knew that they would prove to be a special partnership.

“I’m a bit psychic and early on I remember telling Emilio ‘I think we’re gonna be famous and I think we’re gonna be famous all over the world’.” she said. “I believed so strongly in the music and I didn’t know how it was going to happen but I just knew something was gonna happen.”

Happen it certainly did and now audiences are getting the chance to enjoy their remarkable story.

For Gloria, the show has had a surprising effect.

“It makes grown men cry,” she laughed. “Personally, seeing grown men cry is my favourite thing.

“I also love how it surprises people. They go in expecting one thing and they come out feeling everything we’d hoped, which is a connection and having been on an emotional journey besides just the pure entertainment of the music and what they already know about us.”

With such a successful career behind her, what is the thing that she is most proud of as it’s depicted in the show?

“That we stayed true to who we were,” she said. “What I tell every young artist is ‘They’re gonna try and change you’. One time they even told Emilio ‘Lose the singer!’ because it was the time of bands with male leads. Yes, Fleetwood Mac had two female singers but they also had male singers and yes, there was Madonna and Cyndi Lauper but that was a new thing in music.

“The record company even told Emilio to get rid of the horns and the percussion section. But we said ‘This is who we are’ and we fought to stay true to that. I’m proud that we were able to manoeuvre our way into the business without compromising.

“I remember saying ‘I can deal with failure if it’s something you really believe in but dealing with success when you’re making music you don’t like or that’s not true to you is gonna be really hard’. We stuck to our guns and learned we’re our best cheerleaders.”

On Your Feet, Palace Theatre, Manchester, Monday, October 28 to Saturday, November 2. Details from www.atgtickets.com