The story of Vaya Con Dios (a Spanish phrase which means "go with god") started in 1986. The group was formed by Dani Klein, Dirk Schoufs (bass from the rockabilly group The Wild Ones) and Willy Lambregt (guitar player for the Scabs). Their first release, the single "Just a friend of mine" characterizes the group with its love for Spanish-influenced music and acoustic instruments. It becomes an overnight hit (300.000 sold copies in France) and their career is on the way.
Willy Willy decides to spend all his time with the Scabs (Vaya Con Dios wasn't "rock'n'roll" enough) and the first full album is recorded with session musicians. The singles "Puerto Rico" and "Don't cry for Louie" open even more doors for the group
The second album continues the success story (with hits like the melancholic "What's a woman" and the joyous European hit "Nah neh nah"). The influence of Spanish flamenco shifts to "old American jukebox hits although with unmistakable influences from gypsy music and French chanson" (Oor).
In 1991 the pair of Dirk Schoufs and Dani Klein lose interest in each other and Dirk leaves the band. Soon afterwards he dies of a drugs-related infection disease. The Album "Time Flies" which is released a year after, is the saddest thus far, with a lot of soul influences but also trips across the border to music of Latin-America. The album is entirely a Dani Klein product, which makes it clear that the group is in fact a singer, a "femme fatale".
According to the record company, this was also the album which had to lift them to the status of superstar, but that wasn't to be. The black but mediocre single "Heading for a fall" got very heavy "rotation" on MTV but didn't produce a lot of excitement.
The group has built a very considerable following all over the world (but especially in Germany, France and Scandinavia) and the band makes a very successful tour around the world in 1993.
The 1995 album "Roots and Wings" doesn't change the musical direction of the group drastically (mainly r&b, but this time also with some musical accents from India and Arabian music). It is recorded in the Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama (the legendary studio for artists like Etta James and Aretha Franklin). The horn section from Muscle Shoals accompanies Dani on her European tour in 1996. Her son (19-year old Simon Schoovaerts) plays the keyboards on stage.
After 7,000,000 copies of albums sold, Dani Klein felt trapped by the success, however. In 1996 she had become fed up with the circus the group had become, and retired from showbizz to travel and "live her life". She explained the process a few years later : "In the latest phase it was no pleasure anymore. Vaya con Dios felt like a machine that had to be kept turning. I had to cancel the last concerts because I fell ill, the stress was terrible. I didn't have a bond with the musicians anymore, they just came to do their job for two months. I didn't even know if they even liked the music. We didn't talk about such things. No, that was not my cup of tea anymore. But I guess that is how it goes : you start small and then the thing starts getting bigger and bigger." She explained in an interview with Peter Van Dyck in Weekend-Knack "The pressure had become to high, the expectations for each new album had grown too much."
It wasn't until four years later that Dani Klein emerged on the music scene again, with a new band called Purple Prose.
