German Music

Nena

Her real name is Gabriele Suzanne Kerner. She was born on March 24th 1960 in Hagen in North Rhine-Westphalia.

She belonged to the New German Wave. This kind of music was popular in 1980s. She was the member of the band Nena which was called after her.

Nena became famous in Germany in 1983 with the song "99 Luftballons". In 1984 she re-recorded the song in English as "99 Red Balloons". The song came during a period of an escalating tension between the Sowiet Union and the U.S.A. The lyrics is a protestsong about potential nuclear war. The English version was Hit Nr. 1 in Great Britain for three weeks. Suprisingly in the U.S.A. became more succesful the German version. The song became Nr. 2 in the U.S.A. It became the first German-language record to reach the top ten on the US charts.

Since 1984 Nena has never had another hit single in any English speaking country therefore she is considered to be a very successful one-hit wonder singer in both the U.S. and the UK.

Her band continued to have success in several European countries in the following years. The band split in 1987, and Nena went solo thereafter.

In 1990s she realeased several albums, most of them are songs for children.

In 2002 she re-recorded her hits from 80s and released a new album. The remake of "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime" as an English-German duet with Kim Wilde was a hit in several European countries. In the Netherland and Austria the song was Nr. 1 in the charts and Nr. 3 in Germany.