Get ready Ames — the diva of country music is coming.

The fashionably synthetic cowgirl country singer Shania Twain takes the stage tonight as the Midwest leg of her first-ever world tour continues.

Shania has performed on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “Good Morning America” and in three years has become a leading lady in both country and pop music. But her quick journey to stardom wasn’t an easy one.

She was born in Canada to Jerry and Sharon Twain. They named her Eilleen and pampered her the most of their five children. The family was poor but happy in hard work and music. Her parents struggled daily just to make ends meet.

As a child, Shania often carried mustard sandwiches to school as her sack lunch since they couldn’t afford much more. Her biggest fear was that her teachers would find out she wasn’t being fed properly and take her away.

One thing Shania did learn during her meager childhood was how to play the guitar. She learned from her dad and by the age of eight was playing community centers, senior citizens homes and even bars, performing before the midnight alcohol curfew.

She eventually formed a rock band that played covers of Journey and Cheap Trick.

The conventions of being a famous rock star were barely beginning to take shape when Shania’s life was shattered. Her parents were killed in a head-on collision with a logging truck.

Her rock band faltered, and she took the burden of raising her younger siblings upon herself. She landed a job as a lounge singer at the age of 21 to earn money and support the family.

As her siblings grew older and were able to get on with their lives independently, Shania was allowed to move on with her own. She found her way to Nashville with a demo tape and eventually recorded an album that hopelessly flopped.

Meanwhile, the famed producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange (Def Leppard, Bryan Adams) had been keeping an eye on her. They met up, hit it off and were married six months later.

The duo quickly began work on Shania’s second album, “The Woman In Me,” which blasted onto the country music scene and sold over 12 million copies. Shania became one of only five women to sell over 10 million copies of one album in the history of recorded music.

“The Woman In Me” carried with it the four powerhouse hits “Any Man Of Mine,” “(If You’re Not In It For Love) I’m Outta Here,” “You Win My Love” and “No One Needs To Know.” The album helped Shania to win the World Music Award for Best Selling Country Female Artist, three American Music Awards, BMI Songwriters Awards and countless others.

Many skeptics of Shania’s abilities believed the album’s success was all due to her linking up with Mutt Lange.

But Shania believed otherwise, as she said in a radio interview last year.

“The best place to get to know me is in the music,” she said. “Of course we all know the way you are portrayed through all the different ways, television, radio, print. It’s just how everybody praises you and writes about you in a different way.

“So the only way to truly get to know an artist is through their music. If you listen to an artist that writes their own music, that’s the person you’re getting,” she said.

Shania went on in the interview to share a few details of each of the songs on her new critically acclaimed album “Come On Over,” which has peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart.

The first single, “Love Gets Me Every Time,” is one of her five favorites. And it should be, since the song made history by entering the R&R Country Top 50 in the No. 20 spot, the highest debut by any female artist. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard in a record-breaking six weeks.

“That song started out being called ‘Gol-darn Gone And Done It,’ but it became quite a tongue twister. I didn’t want anybody stumbling on anything with the first single,” Shania said.

One thing Shania is known for is her relaxed, almost talkative singing style, which she admittedly does on purpose. One example is her single “Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You),” which she co-wrote with her husband.

“I wanted this album to be very conversational,” she said. “Most of the lyrics won’t get you an ‘A’ in grammar, but it’s more of the way we speak in real life.”

The latest single, “You’re Still the One,” is one of her most unique songs yet because it breaches the boundaries of country and pop music. Shania has said that the song represents her success with love and parallels her marriage with Lange.

The sensual video that accompanies the hit single was nominated for Best Female Video in the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.

Shania has hit the road for her maiden tour that has her playing for Metallica-sized crowds in arenas that have sold out as quickly as 29 minutes.

The overwhelming success of her career thus far hasn’t gone to her head which, by the way, lacks a cowboy hat.

“I want to be doing music forever, but do I want to be a star forever?” she pondered.

Perhaps the rocking song near the end of her new album says it best in the final lyrics, “Get ready, we’re coming.”

Shania Twain plays Hilton Coliseum tonight with special guest Leahy. Tickets are $34 and are available for the 8 p.m. show.