Nena

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Lol :-)

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Lol, did you just run outside and take that picture?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons

This explains the original song. It was pre German reunification. It was huge back then. There was a real fear of global nuclear war.

I didn't know about this song until my husband played it one day. He is older than me and told me he was stationed in Germany when Nena released the song. As he speaks German very well, I asked and he says the English version is not quite an adequate translation.

Germans fully expected to be in the middle of wwiii. I’m Guessing you experienced it too. I make no comment about military personnel speaking fluent German stationed in Germany.

Hubby speaks a few languages. He attributes his talent for learning languages on being a native American, that his ancestors had an affinity for quick learning (out of necessity) the languages of neighboring tribes. Me, I tend to just think he's one smart cookie :)

It’s described as a verse or lyrical translation. The lyrical rhythms are close but not quite there. I prefer the poetry of the German original, but can only recognise key words and phrases. My kids learned a bit of German at school.

Luft= air though

The English version called them 99 Red Balloons though. I’m not saying that luft means red, I hardly know English, let alone a second language, lol :-)

I know bath versions. The red balloon version didn’t sound right to me.

I like the sound of the German version, it sounds more natural, especially with her awesome voice :-)

Exactly.
I wonder if the English red was just dubbed over the original

Americans preferred the German version, while the English version hit the UK charts. They recorded English versions of a number of their songs for UK release.

Thanks for the info :-)
Last week I was in a store and the English version came on. I recognized the intro and got a chill. I stood and listened. Very cool :-)
Afterwards, I had the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day, lol :-)

Yeah, 99 luft balloons = 99 air balloons.

They can still be Chinese air balloons couldn't they?

Yes.
It was an anti Cold War song.mi think when there was still a Germany divided. I think the air balloons were a symbol of a yearning for peace. There was a young German guy who flew across the border too.

Yes, absolutely agree on the origin of the song. I was like 19 when it came out. My take on it alwys was more like missiles launching, like the start of WW III. Just my take, I will research a bit more here shortly,, I could be wrong and you've made me curious.

I left a Wikipedia link. It was about an accidental Bolt Out Of the Blue. As I thought. There were huge fears about some trigger happy military leaders reacting to false sighting/tracking. So it really was a song of the Cold War times.

PS I think I was still in school by a few years. I thought I was close to the oldest flipper

Two opinions in Songfacts and also Wikipedia say that it's based on what would happen in the tense Cold War era if 99 balloons were let up at once in (then) West Germany, drift east, get picked up by East German radar who then mount a counterstrike against the perceived threat...

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/nena/99-luftballons#:~:text=The%20song%2C%20though%20difficult%20to,dreams%20that%20each%20person%20had.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons

Yes. I read them. Crazy times. The writer of the lyrics went to a concert in Berlin where balloons were released. This was a real fear back then. I live in the southern hemisphere, very close to where Pentagon modelling showed would get the least radioactive fallout. A lot of high ranking retired US military live less than an hour away from me.

That's comforting!

As a kid in the Cold War it was scary though, wherever you lived. Strategically I grew up in a fairly safe place, but we did have an Air Force base that had anti sub operations. Why would we have facilities to track submarines (and satellites and communications and missiles too, in other locations)

Word was back then that there was an incident where a large bunch of balloons floating some distance up in the air over in Europe set off radar as if it was attacking aircraft and for a few minutes they were scambling to launch a nuclear counteroffensive before realizing what they were. So WWIII was almost set off by a stray flock of balloons. Or so word had it.....

R.I.P. Nena

According to Wikipedia she is still alive

Oh wow, thanks. Just made my night.
Somehow I was under the impression she had passed not so long ago, my mistake.

No problem

Well, we're saying the same thing only different...

Everything that I read says that it is a "what if" scenario on the parts of the songwriters. You're saying that it's based off of a real life incident? Got links?

Yeah, tons. Let me go remove the wall to the sealed off old IBM room in the basement and see if I could find those bookmarks I made in 1983.

Yes, folks, the song isn't some new Pepsi ad tune that came out in 2017.

As in Lufthansa

Yep, as in Lufthansa.

amazing