Nena

Nena (born March 24, 1960 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German singer who became famous with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons" ("99 Red Balloons" in the English version). With the re-release of her own hits, Nena's career experience saw a second wind in the year 2002.

== Biography =

Nena was born Gabriele Susanne Kerner in 1960 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She acquired her nickname, "Nena", an alternate version of the Spanish word "niña" (little girl) during a vacation to Spain at the age of three. In 1977 she left high school prior her graduation to receive training as a goldsmith. Around the same time guitarist Rainer Kitzmann offered her to become the lead singer of his band, The Stripes. The group had a minor hit with the song "Ecstasy" but never managed to achieve broad success, and soon split.

In 1981 Nena and her boyfriend Rolf Brendel moved to West-Berlin, where they met their later band members: guitarist Carlo Karges, keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and bass player Jürgen Dehmel. A year later ...