Nena - 99 Luftballons

Today (April 8th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of 99 Luftballons, a compilation album from the German rock band Nena. Drawing from the band's first two releases (1983's Nena which I reviewed here and ? (Fragezeichen) from earlier in 1984, this album split evenly with tracks in English and German. It spent fourteen weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 27.

Nena - Nena

Today (January 14th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of the self-titled debut album Nena. The German rock band featured Gabriele Kerner on lead vocals, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen on keyboards, Carlo Karges on guitar, Jürgen Dehmel on bass and Rolf Brendel on drums.

Reviewing this 1983 album would have proven to be a challenge in the pre-Internet days as I do not speak German, the native language that Nena performs in. Luckily, there are websites that translate the titles and lyrics, making it a bit easier to enjoy this new-wave release.