it’s been five years since we last visited Gloria Estefan in Miami, and things feel different this time. Sure, the well-loved singer is as gracious as ever, opening her heart and her home to our crew just as she has in the past. But things have changed. Gloria and her husband and producer, Emilio Estefan, are an empire now. On this particular day, the house is abuzz with phones, faxes, television crews, nannies and teen-agers. In the chaos, Gloria sits serenely. The mother of 16-year-old, goatee-sporting Nayib and 22-month-old Emily looks strong, sculpted and younger than ever. Preparing to embark on a yearlong world tour to promote her new album, "Destiny," Estefan is cool and collected. She hasn’t been on the road for five years, and we wonder if there isn’t a butterfly or two flitting around in that firm tummy. "I’m ready," she says matter-of-factly. "Being well-prepared both physically and musically is the only thing I can control, nothing else. I don’t fret about anything much in my life anymore." No one knows better than Gloria Estefan that life is full of unexpected detours. In 1990, a bus accident that could have crippled her left her with two steel rods permanently supporting her back. For some, those rods would be unwelcome reminders of the accident. For Estefan, they are souvenirs of the surgery that made possible her full recovery, a stunning 1991 comeback with her "Coming Out of the Dark" album and a concert tour charged with performances of pure athleticism. Then, last year, there was the accident in which a young man died when he rode his personal watercraft too close and too fast into the wake of the boat Emilio was driving. The couple faced the tragedy and then ensuing publicity together in sorrow. "When you’re a public person," she says, "you can’t crawl into a hole and hide. They’ll find you, and follow you right in."

Tour in Traning The easygoing feeling of Gloria Estefan’s current concert tour actually is the result of steady physical preparation. Pre-tour, Estefan did five hour-long cardio/strength circuits a week with her Miami Beach-based personal trainer, Tony Roma. The routine varied upper- and lower-body strength exercises from day to day and involved plenty of basics such as push-ups and crunches, plus StairMaster and treadmill work. Now that Estefan is on the road with a show that provides so much physical activity, her routine has eased up a bit. (In fact, she says her biggest health concern is getting enough sleep to reenergize herself from performance to performance.) She still does high-intensity workouts five days a week but goes only half as long, and Roma has to be creative about equipment. He travels with resistance bands and a jump-rope, and they’re doing more runs on the beach.

Perhaps it is this openness that has endeared Gloria to the public. She credits the love of her fans with helping her and her family pull through each of these catastrophes. "As far as I’m concerned, there is only one direction you can go, and that’s forward," she says.

Once again, she has regrouped, refocused and renewed her career with "Destiny," an album and tour with a decidedly different mood. "The last tour was very physical," she says. "I wanted to prove that I was all right after the bus accident. I wanted to show them I could still move."

"[This year’s tour] has a much cozier feeling, both in music and in movement. It is very intimate, very Latin, very homey," says Estefan. In a word, very family. On the tour, son Nayib’s magic act will open for Gloria. And, of course, baby Emily (named after her daddy) is accompanying them all over the world.

One of the new songs Estefan will be singing on tour is called "Reach," and it has probably already reached more listeners than anything she’s ever done. She wrote it for "Destiny," but the song found its way onto one of several compilation albums benefiting Olympic athletes worldwide. Ultimately, it became a 1996 Olympic anthem, which she performed at the Closing Ceremonies in Atlanta.

Drawing from all the experiences in her life – tragedies as well as triumphs – Estefan co-wrote the song in a matter of minutes with Diane Warren, who wrote Celine Dion’s No. 1 hit, "Because You Loved Me."

"I don’t know how to explain it. The song just came to us," Estefan says. "Diane said, ‘What do you think of "Reach" as a title?’ I thought about it for a minute and realized it was incredible."

As it turned out, destiny had its own hand in the creation. When Estefan’s manager, Frank Amedeo, presented the song to members of the Olympic Committee, they were shocked. No one had discussed the 1996 Olympics slogan, "Higher, Stronger, Faster," with either of the women, but in the chorus of "Reach" were the words "... If I could reach higher, I’m gonna be stronger..."

Estefan hopes the true message of the song won’t be lost in the metaphor, "Reaching is a visual thing," she says. "We talk about reaching toward the stars in order to create a picture. But in truth, what will get you through the dark every time is having the ability to reach inward for the lesson, because it’s always there. That’s what it’s all about."

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