As a music fan who listens to international music and prefer songs sung in their original language, I treasure “99 Luftballons” for introducing me to German music and also introducing me German new wave back then.
Click here to purchase Nena – “99 Luftballons” on Amazon
BAND: Nena
ALBUM: 99 LuftBallons
DURATION: 11 Songs (42 Minutes)
RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1984
1 99 Red Balloons
2 Hangin’ On You
3 Just a Dream
4 Let Me Be Your Pirate
5 Kino
6 Das Land der Elefanten
7 Leuchtturm
8 Rette mich
9 Unerkannt durchs Märchenland
10 99 Luftballons
When it comes to Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) rock bands and music artists, Nena is a band that will be remembered for their hit song “99 Luftballons”. But even moreso for its vocalist, Gabriele “Nena” Kerner, who is one of the most successful German pop singers in chart history.
And at the age of 62, the singer has showed no signs of calling it the end of the day, considering she is still releasing music and her 2020 album debuted at No. 3 in the German Charts and also did well in Switzerland and Austria.
While in the US, the band Nena is considered a one-hit wonder with “99 Luftballons”, I tend to hate that term because there are bands that have done magnificently well in their home country and because they had one hit in the US, they are deemed as a band that couldn’t come up with another hit.
But in the case of Nena, they really did try. As MTV showcased the all-German song “99 Luftballons”, they tried to to reach out internationally with an English version of the song titled “99 Red Balloons” but the song didn’t translate well in English. In fact, the English version is not a direct translation of the German song, but while retaining the spirit of the original, the song comes off sounding poetic and the band disapproved of the English version. So bad, that even song co-writer Uwe Fahkrenkrog Petersen said, “We made a mistake there. I think the song loses something in translation and even sounds silly”.
Still, Epic wanted to capitalize on the German band’s hit song and who can blame them.
Nena as mentioned consists of vocalist Gabriele Kerner who came to West Berlin with boyfriend at the time, drummer Rolf Brendel and looked for more band members and would add guitarist Carlo Karges, bassist Jurgen Dehmel and keyboardist Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen.
The band members chose the name “Nena”, which was Gabriele’s toddler nickname which means “little girl” in Spanish.
The ’80s was the European explosion and many bands especially from the UK wanted to take advantage of a music industry where people were willing to listen to music in another language and enjoy it.
These moments are rare.
The only time a non-English track charted at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 was “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” by Domenico Modugno, in 1963 with “Sukiyaki” by Sakamoto Kyu and that same year with “Dominique” by The Singing Nun.
And there would not be another non-English hit song in the Billboard Hot 100 debuting at no. 1 ’80s when Falco had the hit “Rock Me Amadeus” (1986) and Los Lobos with “La Bamba” (1987).
But Nena tried and they came close, as “99 Luftballons” charted at no. 2, while taking #1 in numerous countries such as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Japan’s “Oricon International Chart” and Europe’s “Eurochart Hot 100”, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, US “Cashbox” and West Germany.
So, you can’t blame Epic for wanting the band to release an international album featuring English tracks with “99 Luftballons” which would feature songs from both their debut German album “Nena” (1983) and “?” (1985).
The album kicks off “99 Red Balloons” (the English version of “99 Luftballons”), a song inspired from a Rolling Stones concert in June 1982 and Nena guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that ballons were being released and as it floated, it started to change shapes and look like a strange UFO looking object. And thinking, what if those baloons floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector.
Also, inspired when five high school students in 1973 tried to prank a UFO by launching 99 aluminized Mylar balloons attached with ribbons to a traffic flare. Thus giving the impression of a large red object floating over Red Rock Canyon in the US.
Who knows what the truth is about the origins of the song, but what is known is that the song has become a classic hit. While the German version was more popular, the English version started to gain traction when it was included in the video games for “Dance Dance Revolution” and “Just Dance”.
The next four tracks are English versions of their German songs (a total of five English tracks).
You get the English version of “?” (Fragezeichen/Question Mark), “Hangin’ on You” (Ich han an dir), “Just a Dream” (Nur getraumt) and “Let Me Be Your Pirate” (Lass mich dein Pirat sein).
Interesting enough, their first single “Nur geträumt” was not featured in German, but “Just a Dream” is a solid track in English and is probably the best English track on the album, even bettering the English version of “99 Red Balloons”. The song did debut at no. 70 on the UK Singles Chart, while in German, “Nur Getraumt” debuted at no. 2.
While you get the German tracks of “Kino”, “Das Land der Elefanten”, the band’s third single “Leuchtturm”, “Rette mich”, “Unerkannt durchs Marcheland” and the track that many probably will buy this album for, the German track of “99 Luftballons”.
So, if anything, this international tries to give listeners a chance to enjoy the band via English and German tracks. A good balance of both and showing that the band can produce English tracks if they so wish.
But overall, Nena’s “99 Luftballons” was an attempt to bring the German band to an international audience but the problem that worked against Nena is the everchanging music scape.
Quite simply, a lot of European bands that debuted during the post-punk, New Wave, New Romantic era, were starting to lose favor and only a few bands that were able to captive listeners with big-budget music videos and a string of hits would be the only bands that would endure in the US.
But one shouldn’t feel bad about Nena only having one hit in the US, considering it’s a German song that reached no. 2, that is a major accomplishment. And if anything, the release of this international album drummed up interest and people like myself wanted the original German tracks of the songs featured in English.
The band would go on to release four albums through 1986, while Gabriele “Nana” Kerner would find tremendous success in Germany.
Personally, as a music fan who listens to international music and prefer songs sung in their original language, I treasure “99 Luftballons” for introducing me to German music and also introducing me German new wave back then.
Click here to purchase Nena – “99 Luftballons” on Amazon
