The German band that had a hit single with “99 Luftballons (99 Red Balloons)” was Nena.
Nena was a West German Neue Deutsche Welle band formed in West Berlin in 1981. The group was named after its lead singer, Gabriele Susanne Kerner, whose stage name was Nena. Its breakthrough came with “Nur geträumt,” but international fame followed with “99 Luftballons,” released in 1983.
The song emerged during the Cold War and imagines harmless balloons being mistaken for unidentified aircraft, triggering a dangerous military escalation. Guitarist Carlo Karges wrote the German lyrics, while keyboardist Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen composed the music. The later English-language version, “99 Red Balloons,” was not a literal translation, though it kept the anti-war premise. The original German recording reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, while the English version topped the UK singles chart. A common mix-up is calling Nena only a solo singer: she later had a solo career, but the 1983 hit was recorded by the band Nena.