NFL
By: Greg Rector
If I said Gabriele Susan Kerner, most people here wouldn’t have a clue who she is. If you’re my age, though, you know who Nena is. First of all, when she sang 99 Luftballons, which was recorded in English as 99 Red Balloons, a song that reached number one 42 years ago. In the US, the German version went to number two.
In 1984, when I saw the video of this German chick with unshaved armpits, I wasn’t impressed. Kerner did say she was astounded that it caused such a stir. Referring to the “huge indignation” the issue raised, Nena, in her memoirs published in 2005, wrote, “Can a girl from Hagen, who dreams of the big wide world and is in love with Mick Jagger, have no idea that girls can’t under any circumstances have hair under the arm? Yes, she can. I simply had no idea!”
Then, even before the English version was released, I found out what “99 Luftballons” was really about. I also heard Captain Kirk was in the song, which, being a huge Star Trek fan, of course, piqued my interest. The lyrics address the anxieties surrounding the threat of nuclear war, indicative of the unstable political climate at the time. While the song’s narrative may seem absurd, they emphasize how easily the world could fall apart. In the ending of both versions, the world was left in ruin by what is assumed to be nuclear weapons. Now, as someone who grew up during the height of the “Cold War,” I despise the idea of nuclear weapons.
You know a song reaches people the way 99 Luftballons/99 Red Balloons did. In 2006, VH1 Classic, an American cable television station, ran a charity event to support Hurricane Katrina relief. Viewers who made donations were allowed to choose which music videos the station would play. One viewer donated $35,000 for the right to program an entire hour and requested continuous play of “99 Luftballons” and “99 Red Balloons” videos. The station broadcast the videos as requested on 26 March 2006
For me, though, when I think about Gabriel Susan Kerner (Nicknamed Nena), I love her real-life story. After Nena broke up in 1987, she was in a relationship with Robert Frietag, and they had their first child, Christopher Daniel, who was born with medical issues due to medical errors and died at eleven months of age while Nena went into cardiac arrest. Imagine having a heart attack while giving birth? She went on to have four healthy children, including her twins, who now appear as part of her band.
She has recorded other songs in English, like the 2007 album “Cover Me,” which features her singing Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Rammstein songs. In 2003, she recorded “Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime” with another famous 1980s singer, Kim Wilde.
She was a judge on the German versions of The Voice and spent three years with her daughter, Larissa, on the German version of The Voice Kids.
In either language, Nena “Little Baby” in Spanish has remained a force in German music, but for those of us old enough to be alive in the tail end of the “Cold War,” 99 Luftballons remains one song we never forget.
Here she is performing 99 Luftballons in 2018, and the audience knows the song word-for-word. Most of those kids weren’t even born when she sang the song in 1983. The power of music lives deep around the world. Her two kids, Sakias and Larrisa, are performing with their mom.
