The band was shaped in 1982 when vocalist Gabriele Kerner got here to Berlin with drummer Rolf Brendel, her boyfriend on the time. There they assembled the opposite members of the band, which took its title from their lead singer’s nickname (a corruption of the Spanish for “little woman”), which she had acquired as a toddler throughout a household vacation to Spain.
The band wrote all of their songs themselves, sometimes working in pairs. They turned in a single day sensations in Germany once they carried out their debut single “Nur geträumt” on German TV in August 1982, Nena herself carrying a particular quick crimson skirt.[1] The only reached #2 within the German charts, a place it occupied for six weeks, and in addition climbed excessive within the Austrian, Belgian, Dutch and Swiss charts. In early 1983 the follow-up single
“99 Luftballons” spent an extra 7 weeks at #2 earlier than lastly reaching the highest slot, a place the debut album (Nena) matched.
By the point the band launched its 2nd album (? (Fragezeichen)) in Germany in January 1984,
“99 Luftballons” was beginning to climb the US charts, the place it reached #2 and have become one of the vital profitable non-English language tracks in US Billboard chart historical past. With the English model of the music (“99 Purple Balloons”) reaching the #1 place within the UK,[8] the band turned internationally well-known and in 1984 gave live shows and made TV appearances in Scandinavia, UK, Spain and France in addition to a 7-date tour (on consecutive nights) of Japan.[9] [10] A world album (99 Luftballons) which comprised a mix of English variations of tracks from the primary two German albums, carried out respectably, reaching #31 within the UK charts in mid 1984.
Throughout 1984, Nena</herself abruptly attracted publicity for not shaving her armpits. Bemused on the consideration this generated, she shaved them instantly and has continued to take action ever since.
While having fun with worldwide prominence on the again of “99 Luftballons”, the band continued to get pleasure from home success in Germany with a string of hits in 1984 and the primary half of 1985. The ? (Fragezeichen) album matched the band’s debut album in making it to the highest spot and spawned two of the band’s greatest identified and most profitable singles (the title monitor and “Rette mich”). Additionally they had success with a few songs which might ultimately be included on their third studio album, Feuer und Flamme, most notably “Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann”.
