Nena
German singerWikipedia
43
MENTIONS
12
EPISODES
11
PODCASTS
Search complete. 43 mentions across 12 episodes found for "Nena".
Oct 12, 2026
Mike ImbodenHOST
... to hit, to hit play.
Mike ImbodenHOST
[sniffs] Uh, 99 Red Balloons, Nena.
Mike ImbodenHOST
18 and Life by Skid Row.
Mike ImbodenHOST
One More Night by Phil Collins.
Andrew ClarkeGUEST
Uh, it's an attack on, on the whole upper echelon of society and all the controlling who were there at the time.
Eric SenichHOST
You bring me back to my MTV, early MTV days when I was a kid with Nena's 99 Luftballons, and I had no clue what the song was about.
Eric SenichHOST
MTV I think played both versions back in the day from 1983.
Eric SenichHOST
Now, this tells the almost absurd story of balloons drifting across the sky and triggering a military response that ends in a global destruction, a scenario that reflected the very real Cold War fears of, of divided Germany.
Chris MolanphyHOST
Sometimes, like Rockwell, it's their only hit.
Chris MolanphyHOST
Consider Nena's only American hit, which goes by many names, but I will call it 99 Luftballons.
Chris MolanphyHOST
It, too, peaked at number two in 1984.
Chris MolanphyHOST
There are fewer number 11s and number 41s in the '80s, and no number 41 hit as immortal as Elton John's Tiny Dancer, but some are quite remarkable.
27 MINS LATER
Chris MolanphyHOST
The '80s had so many number two hits, we can't possibly get to all of them.
Chris MolanphyHOST
You can categorize these number twos in a few buckets.
Chris MolanphyHOST
There are some '80s acts who only have a number two hit, besides Rockwell and Nena, whom we mentioned earlier.
Chris MolanphyHOST
Consider TV theme song composer Joey Scarbury, who got all the way to number two in 1981 with the theme from The Greatest American Hero, Believe It or Not.
Chris MolanphyHOST
Sometimes, like Rockwell, it's their only hit.
Chris MolanphyHOST
Consider Nena's only American hit, which goes by many names, but I will call it 99 Luftballons.
Chris MolanphyHOST
It, too, peaked at number two in 1984.
speaker_0SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I'm pulling up to 99 Luftballons.
23 MINS LATER
Chris MolanphyHOST
The '80s had so many number two hits, we can't possibly get to all of them.
Chris MolanphyHOST
You can categorize these number twos in a few buckets.
Chris MolanphyHOST
There are some '80s acts who only have a number two hit, besides Rockwell and Nena, whom we mentioned earlier.
Chris MolanphyHOST
Consider TV theme song composer Joey Scarbury, who got all the way to number two in 1981 with the theme from The Greatest American Hero, Believe It or Not.
Ben RogersHOST
99 Luftballons.
Ben RogersHOST
Nena.
Ben RogersHOST
Yep.
Ben RogersHOST
Tainted Love.
Ben RogersHOST
99 Luftballons.
Jeff Skin WadeHOST
Nena?
Ben RogersHOST
Yep.
Ben RogersHOST
Tainted Love.
Brett VargoHOST
And their self-titled album from 1980.
Brett VargoHOST
Now, they were one of the most prominent bands of the Neue Deutsche Welle scene, or German new wave, along with artists like Nena and Nina Hagen and her band that became Spliff, and Trio and DAF.
Brett VargoHOST
Now, Ideal really took off after opening up for the British prog pop band Barclay James Harvest at a free show, I think it m- it may have been by that gate, uh, in Berlin.
Brett VargoHOST
There was roughly 150,000 people there.
Chris FafaliosHOST
I c- I feel like if someone was making a list just themself, would probably have this one in the top 10, at least the top 20.
Chris FafaliosHOST
Nena, 99 Luftballons.
Matt KellyHOST
All right.
Matt KellyHOST
So I wanna talk about this, because as you were reading that list, I pulled up, I was like, "What is someone else's one-hit wonder list?" Just out of curiosity.
Matt KellyHOST
11 was Debbie Boone, You Light Up My Life.
Chris FafaliosHOST
Was not on our list.
Matt KellyHOST
10, you just mentioned, Nena, 99 Luftballons.
Matt KellyHOST
Nine, Gerardo, Rico Suave.
Rolf StraubachHOST
... and challenged us to be a little better.
Rolf StraubachHOST
This week on Music and Revolution, Nena's 99 Luftballons.
speaker_1SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters.
speaker_1SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I tell ya, this land was made for you and me.
Rolf StraubachHOST
Near the end of the show, someone released a bunch of helium balloons up into the night sky.
Rolf StraubachHOST
It was a whimsical gesture that, for most of the crowd, was over pretty quickly.
Rolf StraubachHOST
But for the guitarist of a little-known German band called Nena, it got him thinking.
Rolf StraubachHOST
He watched as the wind took them east toward the Berlin Wall, toward the other Germany, the one behind the Iron Curtain.
NeilHOST
...
NeilHOST
Nena's "99 Red Balloons," Ultravox's "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes," and of course Frankie Goes to Hollywood and "Two Tribes," which we may return to a little bit later.
NeilHOST
It just seemed to be wherever you turned, there was a reminder that you could die at any moment in a nuclear firestorm.
NeilHOST
And if Stanislav Petrov had followed procedures, we wouldn't be here talking about Threads today.
2 more episodes mention Nena.
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