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Nena

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Nena was a West German pop group from West Berlin, founded in 1982 and named after the singer Gabriele Kerner, who called herself Nena. She came from Hagen and had previously sung English-language new wave in the band The Stripes. At the suggestion of the record company CBS she moved to Berlin and began singing in German. There, with the drummer Rolf Brendel, the keyboardist Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, the guitarist Carlo Karges and the bassist Jürgen Dehmel, she formed the group Nena, a band of the Neue Deutsche Welle.

Music and breakthrough

The first single, Nur geträumt (1982), became a number 2 hit in West Germany after a performance on the TV programme Musikladen. In March 1983 came 99 Luftballons, with music by Fahrenkrog-Petersen and lyrics by Karges. Karges got the idea in June 1982, when he saw balloons rising into the sky at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin. The song begins quietly and then speeds up into a cheerful pop song with synthesizers and guitar, while the lyrics are about a nuclear war. It reached number 1 in West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria and, in German, reached number 2 in the United States. The English version, 99 Red Balloons, reached number 1 in England.

Influence

The band itself was never happy with that English version, which made it too explicitly a protest song. After the albums Feuer und Flamme (1985) and Eisbrecher (1986) the group broke up in 1987. Nena's duet Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime with Kim Wilde (2003) reached number 1 in the Netherlands. 99 Luftballons belongs, along with Two Tribes and De bom, to the pop songs that cheerfully packaged the fear of the bomb in the 1980s.

Listening

Listening tip. In 99 Luftballons, notice the build-up: the song begins slowly, with only voice and soft keyboards, and then shifts into a fast beat with a pumping bass. The cheerful, danceable music is at odds with the lyrics, which end with the singer alone in the ruins.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Nena
  2. Wikipedia (de): Nena (Band
  3. Wikipedia (en): 99 Luftballons
Categories: ArtistsNeue Deutsche Welle