March 24, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aLiT3wXko0
60 years and not a bit quiet: Nena, the 23.3. Celebrating her milestone birthday, she swam high up on the Neue Deutsche Welle in the early 1980s.
It was not the flashiest appearance of the music movement, but for many it was the most exciting.
On March 24, 1960, the singer was born Gabriele Susanne Kerner in Hagen. She owes the name Nena to a vacation in Spain: the Spanish children always called her “Nina” or “little one” after her.
She then used it to shape Nena, which her parents would have taken over. She first made music as a singer of the band The Stripes. She made it to individual television appearances, but the breakthrough failed to materialize. With her partner Rolf Brendel Nena then moved to West Berlin, founded the band named after her with other musicians and rose furiously.
In 1982, Nena became known practically overnight in the ARD youth broadcast “Musikladen” with the single “Nur träumten”. For some energetic, for others exhausting, Nena released “99 balloons” as a second single in early 1983.
The song captured people’s concerns in the Cold War and became a hit worldwide. And Nena became a style icon. Her wild hair or the fluffy sweatbands on her wrists became a must for an entire generation. Her greatest hits come from that time.
After fatal blows came the solo career
As with most stars of the Neue Deutsche Welle, the success was suddenly over. In 1987 the band split up, and Nena’s relationship with Brendel also failed. Her son Christopher, who was born disabled, died in 1989 at the age of eleven months. After the stroke of fate, Nena forced her solo career as a singer, and also moderated on television. But the big success only came back when she re-recorded old hits – especially her “Somehow, Somewhere, Sometime” as an English version “Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime” in a duet with Kim Wilde was a success.
In 2005 she was able to follow up with new compositions. “Do you want to go with me” became a successful album, as did her accompanying single “Love is”. The once so funky Nena is now mature, has become a much sought-after advertising character and, thanks to the boom in TV casting shows, has become a household name for the young generation as well. Together with the rockers from The Boss Hoss, Nena made the format “The Voice of Germany” famous – but in 2014 she got out again.
Nena, who after the death of Christopher still had twins and then two other children with her long-time partner Philipp Palm, always represented alternative forms of life in addition to her art. She has been a vegan for a long time, once called herself a fan of the cult leader Bhagwan and founded her own school in Hamburg. With a lot of training and yoga, she keeps fit according to her own words.
Even at 60 she wants to stay true to the stage: from June to October she plans six concerts – in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Austria and Germany. It is still uncertain whether they will fall victim to the coronavirus crisis.
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