FOLLOWING admirably in his dad's footsteps, the Latino sex symbol rocked the aisles last night at Manchester Apollo - on his birthday!

Enrique Iglesias, right, famous for being the son of crooner Julio and his woolly hats, kicked off with songs from his latest album Escape.

The crowd was typical of what you would expect to find at any heartthrob's concert - wall-to-wall women!

In the first half, he danced and flirted with his backing singers and showed everyone why he's got such a large legion of female fans.

But, we didn't see the real talent of Iglesias junior until after the interval.

Singing with only an acoustic guitar for accompaniment, he showed why he recently picked up the American Music Award for Favourite Latin artist.

Avoiding dozens of costume changes (he changed only once), he dedicated his short breaks to talking to the crazed women below him.

With surprisingly good cover tracks like Prince's Purple Rain and The Flying Pickets' Only You, he showed no signs of the sore throat he warned everyone about at the beginning and with the backing of an amazing six piece band, Enrique and his gang gave a truly memorable performance.

The highlight, however, for me was when he looked me straight in the eyes - or did I dream that?

Lucy Young