‘I remember hearing Ferry Cross The Mersey. My hair stood on end. I was so enraptured’
The story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan is rolling into Nottingham next week. Gloria Estefan tells us about the show
What have you been most pleased with about how On Your Feet! has been received?
Simply that people seem to love it. There’s actually a group of fans called The Feeties, who are teenage girls or in their early 20s who have seen it, like, 100 times. And there are others who have written to say they were entertained or cried or were reminded of different times in their lives through the songs. 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. It makes grown men cry. Personally, seeing grown men cry is my favourite thing.
Has any dramatic licence been taken with true-life events?
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. The only thing that’s not true is Emilio having a six-pack, as he does in the show.
Is it strange seeing yourself played by someone else?
It was weird at the beginning, I’ve gotta say, 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.
How has it been bringing the show to the UK?
It’s been fantastic. The cast is amazing. Christie Prades, who was in the original Broadway production, has been loving it because she has a whole different energy to
play off. The book is brand new to the English cast and the acting choices they’ve made are spectacular. And Philippa Stefani, who is performing at certain shows in London and is headlining the UK tour, is just wonderful.
What are you most proud of about your career as depicted in the show?
That we stayed true to who we were. What I tell every young artist is “They’re gonna try and change you”. One time they told Emilio “Lose the singer!” … 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.
What’s the most fun number in the musical?
There’s a couple of really big numbers. Tradición is spectacular and then of course there’s Conga, where you literally see how it grows and grows then explodes in joy and includes the audience in it.
When you released Conga in 1985 did you realise it’d be such a huge hit?
Yes, I did. It was written when we were travelling from Holland to England as part of the Dr Beat promotional tour and when we got home we began performing it in our live shows even before we’d recorded it. People were reacting to it as if it was already a hit so we knew we were on to something. Funny thing is, it didn’t do well in the UK because Black Lace’s Do The Conga came out before our song did.
What’s the most poignant song in the show for you?
Most definitely the one I co-wrote with my daughter Emily called If I Never Got To Tell You, which in the play is when my mother comes to visit me in hospital after the tour bus accident. My daughter couldn’t be in the show because she hadn’t been born during the timeframe. I tried to wedge her in there somewhere in any possible way and then she ended up being in it in a very natural, beautiful way through the only original song written specifically for it. It’s a very poignant song because it’s my mum telling me the things she wished she’d told me.
Have you changed any of the songs?
I’ve done a lot of layers and added new things to old material. With Mi Tierra I’ve done some English language ad-libs because I don’t want to lose the non-Spanishspeaking audience. I want them to know what’s being sung because it’s advancing the story. I also rewrote some words for a song called Famous because of where it comes in the narrative.
You have a huge LGBTQ following. Have you encountered any drag queen Glorias over the years?
Of course! I love them. They’re far more fabulous than I ever could be and far more out-there. The other day in Miami a friend of mine had her bridal shower at a drag brunch. When we walked in the drag queen who was headlining went “Oh my God, the patron saint of drag queens has just walked through the door”. That’s one of my favourite introductions ever.
When did you first get hooked on music?
I was just four or five years old. I was actually quite shy but music was my love and it would transport me. The old Cuban standards were always playing in our house and I sang as soon as I could talk. My mother performed in school shows and she won a contest to do the Spanish dubbing for Shirley Temple’s films, but her father wanted her to pursue an academic career instead. And my own father had two brothers who sang and played guitar. So I guess music was in the gene pool. Then I started listening to the British Invasion. I remember . Mypulling into a laundromat parking lot with my mother and hearing Ferry Cross The Mersey. My hair stood on end and I didn’t want to get out of the car, I was so enraptured. That song really is like a bolero in its rhythm… All that mixing of sounds had a huge impact on me and I had all this musical vocabulary to draw from.
You met and began working with Emilio in 1975. Did you know then you were on to a winning thing?
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”. 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.
What prompted the decision to go from Miami Sound Machine to Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine, then just Gloria Estefan?
That was Emilio’s idea. I didn’t want him to add my name to the band because we were successful and I was happy with my bandmates, nor did I want it to be just “Gloria Estefan”. But he was like “People are identifying with you, they think you’re beautiful and sexy, they need to know your name”.
The show illustrates just how varied your music has been…
That was always the intention. The tricky thing is that the business wants you to continue with more of the same. Our biggest challenge when we put out Conga and it was so massive was that we wanted to release Bad Boy second and the record company went “But it sounds completely different”. We went “Exactly” and talked them into it. Then we wanted to release Words Get In The Way and they went “But it’s a ballad!” But we thought, “If we don’t take this risk now we’re gonna be locked into this dance thing”. After that song became huge it freed us up but yes, every time you create something you can’t let it paralyse you. ■ On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan plays at Theatre Royal from Monday, September 16, until Saturday, September 21. Tickets: trch.co.uk. Box office: 0115 989 5555. Price: £19.50-£55.