99 Red Balloons – Nena (1983)

Description

Additional information about this Nena vinyl art.

Nena- The Artist/s

Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 1960), better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song “99 Luftballons”. In that same year, the band re-recorded this song in English as “99 Red Balloons”. Nena’s re-recording of some of the band’s old hit songs as a solo artist, produced by the co-composer of most of them, her former Nena band colleague and keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, rekindled her solo career in 2002. Combined with the success of the Nena band years, she has sold over 25 million records, making her the most successful German pop singer in chart history.

99 Red Balloons – The Song

’99 Red Balloons’ is a song by the West German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. This is the English-language version titled “99 Red Balloons”, with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena on the album 99 Luftballons in 1984 after widespread success of the original in Europe and Japan. The original German anti-war anthem by Nena was published in 1983 during The Cold War. The balloons flying into the sky were the idea of Carlo Karges, Nena’s guitarist. The inspiration is taken from the European tour of the Rolling Stones for their album Tattoo You. Among other locations, balloons were released onto the stage and into the crowd during their song “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in Berlin. Karges has imagined, how the balloons would fly over the Berlin Wall and be mistaken for enemy missiles, causing World War III.
Despite being in German, the song was understood internationally. It rose to #1 in the charts of the United Kingdom and Canada for example. Because of this, the English version was recorded. Due to small lyric changes to keep the rhythm, many listeners find the English version as lacking in the special atmosphere which is why it couldn’t keep up with the success of the German original.

The Toy Balloon – The Shape

This record has been modelled into two toy balloons. A toy balloon or party balloon is a small balloon mostly used for decoration,[1] advertising and as a toy. Toy balloons are usually made of rubber or aluminized plastic and inflated with air or helium. They come in a great variety of sizes and shapes but are most commonly 10 to 30 centimetres (3.9 to 11.8 in) in diameter. 

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