40 Years Ago - 1983 Nena released their debut album by the German group led by her.
This is her second album but first with the band.
The big worldwide hit was "99 Luftballons" sung in German. The English version "99 Red Ballons" is not a direct translation of the German original and contains lyrics with a somewhat different meaning.
From the outset Nena and other members of the band expressed disapproval of the English version of the song. In March 1984, the band's keyboardist and song co-writer Uwe Fahrenkrog Petersen said, "We made a mistake there. I think the song loses something in translation and even sounds silly." In another interview that month, the band, including Nena herself, were quoted as being "not completely satisfied" with the English version since it was "too blatant" for a group not wishing to be seen as a protest band.
When the song was popular, you could hear the preferred German version, the hybrid, or the English version. The German version has prevailed.
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