Nena consists of Carlo Karges (guitar), Jürgen Dehmel, Nena Kerner (vocals), Rolf Brendel (drums), Uwe Fahrenkrog-petersen (keyboard).
This article is about Nena the singer. See also nena (disambiguation).
Nena (born March 24, 1960) is a German singer who became famous worldwide with the German New Wave song " 99 Luftballons" (English version "99 Red Balloons").
She was born Gabriele Susanne Kerner in Hagen, Nordrhein-Westfalen ( North Rhine-Westphalia), Germany. She acquired her nickname, "Nena," an alternate version of the Spanish word "niña" (little girl) at the age of 3 during a vacation to Spain.
Her first band was called The Stripes. They had a very minor hit with the song "Ecstasy" but never managed to achieve broad success.
The band Nena was formed with Nena (singer), Rolf Brendel (drums), Carlo Karges (guitar), Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen (keyboard) and Jürgen Dehmel (bass) in Berlin in 1981. Their first hit single, "Nur geträumt" ("Only In Dreams"), came in 1982 after appearing on the German television program Musikladen.
The following year they released their self-titled first album, which contained the singles "99 Luftballons" and "Leuchtturm" ("Lighthouse"). "99 Luftballons" was a #1 hit in many countries (including the U.S.) and an English version of the song, "99 Red Balloons", was recorded, and retains some measure of cultural influence, being referred to in current music - the Guster track Amsterdam. The song also featured in an episode of Scrubs, and the film, Grosse Point Blank. Nena then released ? (Fragezeichen) in 1984, Feuer und Flamme ("Fire And Flame", means "to be all for it") in 1985, Eisbrecher ("Icebreaker") in 1986. During her success in the UK, Nena was also famous for having hairy armpits, which in the UK was unusual for a woman to have. Her performance on the television show Top of The Pops there has become something of a classic, renowned for her hairy armpits and the leather trousers which she wore.
Nena is often considered to be a one hit wonder, for her phenomenal success with "99 Luftballons". In 2000, American TV station VH1 named her tenth in their list of one hit wonders. However, Nena achieved great success in Germany and as such fans protest against this label.
