*WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO.......*

NENA KERNER - of the Band NENA



In typical one-hit-wonder World Domination style, there isn't a person over the age of 25 who doesn't remember and secretly adore the 1984 Germanic New-Wave poptastic little ditty 99 Red Balloons.....

What set this seemingly happy little song about Red Balloons apart from all the braindead happy little songs of the early 1980's is that it actually was a subtle, yet poignant protest song about the past and the renewed cold-war feelings of the Reagan Administration....
- a little inconspicuous darkness for a ridiculous decade.....

The cheesy, less intense English version of the song went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold.

99 Red Balloons

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'till one by one they were gone
Back at base, sparks in the software
Flash the message "something's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety nine red balloons go by

Ninety nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
And focusing it on the sky
The ninety nine red balloons go by

Ninety nine decisions treat
Ninety nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As Ninety nine red balloons go by

Ninety nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a super hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety nine red balloons go by

As ninety nine red balloons go by

Ninety nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go


After that Exciting Flash-in-the-Pan, The Band Nena followed by issuing an English-language album, It's All in the Game (1985).
But when it flopped, the band dissolved.


(Hey! - is that Mike Meyers on the bottom left?!?!?!?!)

Since then, still living comfortably of the royalty's only enjoyed by an 80's one-hit-wonder artist, Nena Kerner has been recording as a solo artist, mostly in her native language.