Nena

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Nena (disambiguation) .

Nena (2013)

Nena (* 24. March 1960 as Gabriele Susanne Kerner in Hagen ) is a German pop singer . With the hit 99 Luftballons of her band Nena she became known in 1983 in the course of the Neue Deutsche Welle . With 25 million records sold worldwide, she is one of the most successful artists in German music history.

Private life

Kerner was born in Hagen in 1960 . During a holiday in Spain when she was three years old, the locals called her “Nena”, a Spanish endearing word that means “little girl”. Her parents liked this nickname so much that they continued to use it from then on. She has two younger siblings, a sister and a brother. Nena lived in Breckerfeld for the first five years of her childhood . She then moved with her family to Hagen, where she attended the Pelmkegrundschule (now the Pelmke cultural center ) in Wehringhausen , and then went to the Christian-Rohlfs-Gymnasium in Hagen-Haspe , which she left early after the eleventh grade. At the request of her parents, she began training as a goldsmith , which she did not finish.

In the 1980s, Nena had a secret one-year affair with Udo Lindenberg . In 1987 she met the actor Benedict Freitag while filming the film The Invisible Man , with whom she lived until 1992. He is the father of their firstborn son (1988–1989) and the twins born in 1990. With Philipp Palm, a twelve years younger drummer and music producer from Esslingen am Neckar , Nena has two more children. The family lives in Hamburg-Rahlstedt .

In April 2007 Nena announced the founding of the New School Hamburg , which she co-initiated and which opened in September 2007 in Hamburg-Rahlstedt. At this democratic school with space for 85 pupils initially, teaching was based on the Sudbury model in Germany . In September 2009 Nena confessed to being a follower of the Indian sect guru Osho, who died in 1990 ; she's practicing Dynamic Meditation .

Nena pursues a vegan lifestyle and was named "Sexiest Vegetarian of the Year 2010" by PETA (Germany) in 2010.

Career

1977 to 1981

In November 1977 Nena met the guitarist Rainer Kitzmann in the Hagen disco Madison , who offered her to join his band The Stripes as a singer. She accepted and in 1978 her first live appearances followed. The first single Strangers was released in late 1979. The LP, as the band called The Stripes , was released in 1980. Three more singles were released, but were not a great success like the LP. The band performed in 1980 with the piece Ecstasy in the record kitchen and in February 1981 with the song Tell Me Your Name on the television show Disco . In the same year the band separated.

1982 to 1987

→ Main article : Nena (band)

At the invitation of the record label CBS Records, Nena moved to West Berlin with her then partner Rolf Brendel , with whom she had met at the Stripes . There they founded the band Nena, named after her, with keyboardist Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen , guitarist Carlo Karges (whom Nena had met in Hagen through Extrabreit ) and bassist Jürgen Dehmel (a friend of Fahrenkrog-Petersen) . In May 1982 the single Nur Trauma was released , the sales of which skyrocketed in August 1982 after a television appearance on the show Musikladen . In September 1982 the band reached the German charts for the first time.

The band's second single was 99 Luftballons in January 1983 . The author Christiane F. took a copy of it along with numerous other German recordings on a trip to the USA. The single caught the eye of K-ROQ's DJ Rodney Bingenheimer in Los Angeles and spread across North America via radio stations on the US West Coast and eventually became a million seller in the USA. The song became a mega hit worldwide. In 1983 Nena also played a leading role alongside Markus Mörl and Karl Dall in the German comedy Gib Gas - I want fun (Director: Wolfgang Büld ).

After the equally successful album ? , which was released in 1984, the band experimented with the music and brought out the album Fire and Flame in 1985 . At the same time, it was released in other countries in English with the name It's all in the game . The style of the album differed from that of the two previous albums, for the first time you heard New Wave with many synthetic sounds, background singers and saxophone. Fire and Flame sold well, but critics were not enthusiastic. In addition, they experienced their first failures, because the last two singles Jung wie du and Du don't know the love did not make it into the charts and comparatively few tickets were sold for the album tour.

Due to this setback, the band separated from their then producer Reinhold Heil and instead produced the album Eisbrecher themselves, together with Klaus Voormann . The album and the first single Mondsong only managed a low chart position (45 and 37 respectively), the second single Engel der Nacht did not make it into the charts at all, as did singles from the previous album. Nena found that buyers had lost interest, so the band split in April 1987, just a few months after their last single was released. In the same year Nena took part in the film The Invisible One (director: Ulf Miehe ).

1988 to 2004

Two years after the end of the band, Nena started her solo career in the fall of 1989 with titles like Miracles and You're Everywhere , which she wrote after the birth of her son who died at the age of eleven months. In the 1990s, Nena released various children's song albums. There were also excursions into the world of television. 1994 moderated Nena few months the magazine Boulevard Metro in the first and 1998 on this station successful with more than seven million viewers Countdown Grand Prix .

During this time she changed record labels twice as she was not satisfied with the success of the album Bongo Girl (Epic Records, 1992) and then with that of the album And everything rotates (RMG, 1994). The latter is Nena's most unsuccessful album, and none of the three singles released could make it into the charts. After her second move (to Polydor), she released the albums Jamma nich and Wenn alles ist geht's , then something nich (1997 and 1998). In 1999 she published the children's song album Rabatz , some of which were performed by a group of children in the Teletubbies short films .

In 2001, the album Chokmah was released , which was higher than all of their previously released solo albums. In 2002 Nena and Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen recorded new versions of the old hits together. The publications achieved high sales and Nena was able to celebrate a comeback. In the same year she also worked with the German DJ WestBam . In 2003 Nena released the song Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime , a remake of her earlier hit Irgendwie, somewhere, sometime in a duet with Kim Wilde . The title was number three in the charts in Germany for weeks and reached number one in the Netherlands and Austria .

Since 2005

The single Liebe ist and the double CD Willst du mit mir gehtn appeared in February and March 2005 respectively. Nena reached number one in the charts in Germany with the single and number two in the album charts with the double CD. In October 2005, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Nenas was published together with Claudia Thesenfitz, an autobiography Willst you go with me . It reached number three on the German bestseller list. In November 2005 Nena started her “Willst du mit mir gehn” tour, which took her through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In the first half of 2006, Nena signed advertising contracts including TV spots with a directory assistance service and with an automobile manufacturer. In September 2006 she released the single Caravan of Love as a duet with Duncan Townsend . The original of this 1985 Isley Brothers track was covered by the Housemartins in 1987 . On Kim Wilde in 2006 the released and album Never Say Never is one of Kim Wilde and Nena together recorded cover version of Supremes -Klassikers You Keep Me Hangin 'on from 1966, with the Kim Wilde in 1986 even an international number one hit was. On September 28, 2007 Nena's double album Cover me was released . On this album the singer interprets national and international hits and personal favorite songs. Advance singles were Open your eyes , the only original track on the album, and a cover version of Marlene Dietrich's I will love you . In December 2007, the Klaus Hoffmann title Mein Weg ist mein Weg was released as a download single as a further release .

Nena on Dein Song in November 2008

In October 2008, Nena took over as music Godmother in the children's show Your Song of the television KI.KA part. On November 7th, 2008 she released the children's album Himmel, Sonne, Wind und Regen . In addition to a duet with Rolf Zuckowski, it also contains a duet with Nena's daughter Larissa, who was involved in the writing of two songs. The producer and composer is Nena's partner Philipp Palm, who also sings along with a song. In the same year she received the German Children's Prize in the Honor Prize category.

From the end of May to mid-August 2009, as part of the Summer of the 80s , a video clip of her song 99 Luftballons with German and French words, newly produced by Philippe Roget, was broadcast every day on the arte television channel. The single Wir sindrue was released on September 18, 2009, followed by the album Made in Germany on October 2, 2009, which was awarded a gold record on April 25, 2010 .

Nena was the cover motif for the Otto catalog at the end of 2009 . It was also the focus of the following media campaign, had its own shop on the mail order company's website and presented the “Youth against labels” brand on the subject of “Glam Rock”. In 2009 Nena made an appearance at the 100th anniversary celebration of MTU / Tognum in Friedrichshafen , which also supplies the armaments industry. Here she sang 99 balloons , while a Leopard 2 tank was displayed on the premises . On May 15, 2010, she gave a concert for the benefit of the Christoffel Mission for the Blind in front of 15,000 visitors at the Ecumenical Church Congress in Munich .

Nena 2011 at the championship celebration of Borussia Dortmund

On November 12, 2010, Nena made a brief appearance in front of 80,000 spectators in the sold-out Westfalenstadion in Dortmund , where she sang her classic Leuchtturm with the fans of Borussia Dortmund . This appearance came after the Dortmund fans had often intoned the chorus as a fan song on the south stand in the previous weeks. In addition to this campaign, Nena also appeared at the BVB championship reception on May 15, 2011 in front of over 400,000 Dortmund football fans in front of the Westfalenhalle .

In 2010 Nena released a remake of her song Haus der Drei Sonnen with singer Peter Heppner . In March 2011 she brought out the single Strobo Pop with the Atzen and also appears in the music video. Since the first season in 2011, she has been a jury member and coach in the German singing casting show The Voice of Germany , which is broadcast by the TV stations ProSieben and Sat.1 . In March 2014 she left the show as a coach and jury member.

Nena's “Live & Acoustic” tour was postponed from December 2011 and January 2012 to April 2012. On her website she wrote: “I'm not seriously ill or anything, but at the moment it's not enough to be on stage every evening.” In February 2015, Nena released the album Oldschool , and on April 8, 2016 it was released the single right now . She also took part in the third season of Sing my Song - The Exchange Concert , which was broadcast by VOX in 2016 . In 2017 and 2018 she was a juror at The Voice Kids together with her daughter Larissa Kerner .

For the fortieth anniversary, Nena performed on her “Nothing missed” tour in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the summer of 2018.

On March 24, 2020, Nena released the single Licht for her 60th birthday .

Discography

→ Main article : Nena / discography  and list of songs by Nena

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1980	The Stripes together with the band of the same name	-	-	-	-	-	First published: 1980
1983	Nena	DE1 platinum (42 weeks)DE	AT1 (8 months) AT	-	UK31 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: Jan 4th 1983 Sales: + 800,000
1984	? (Question mark)	DE1 platinum (34 weeks)DE	AT1 (4½ months) AT	CH1 (29 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: Jan 24, 1984 Sales: + 550,000
1985	Fire and Flame also known as: It's All in the Game (English version)	DE2 gold (18 weeks)DE	AT16 (2 months) AT	CH5 (8 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: June 24, 1985 Sales: + 250,000
1986	Icebreaker	DE45 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: November 24, 1986
1989	Miracles happen	DE23 (25 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: April 5, 1989
1992	Bongo girl	DE32 (13 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: September 28, 1992
1994	And everything turns	DE53 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: May 9, 1994
1997	Yeah not	DE29 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: April 14, 1997
1998	If everything is right, then something is wrong	DE42 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: July 6, 1998
2001	Chokmah	DE18 (4 weeks) DE	AT67 (1 week) AT	-	-	-	First published: October 29, 2001
2002	20 years - Nena feat. Nena	DE2 × 3 Triple platinum (55 weeks)DE	AT1 × 2 Double platinum (52 weeks)AT	CH5 platinum (54 weeks)CH	-	-	First published: October 28, 2002 Sales: + 980,000
2005	Would you like to go with me	DE2 × 3 Triple gold (33 weeks)DE	AT1 gold (28 weeks)AT	CH1 gold (27 weeks)CH	-	-	First published: March 21, 2005 Sales: + 330,000
2007	Cover Me	DE6 (6 weeks) DE	AT18 (5 weeks) AT	CH22 (5 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: September 28, 2007
2009	Made in Germany	DE3 gold (36 weeks)DE	AT4 (22 weeks) AT	CH25 (10 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: October 2, 2009 Sales: + 100,000
2012	You're good	DE2 (11 weeks) DE	AT5 (7 weeks) AT	CH16 (5 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: November 2, 2012
2015	Old school	DE4 (14 weeks) DE	AT10 (6 weeks) AT	CH19 (6 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: February 27, 2015

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Varia

For the animated series " The Bamboo Bear Gang ", Nena and the singer Sebastian Krumbiegel are singing the theme song The Song of this World . The final song, also interpreted by Nena, is called Friends . The title song and the final song as well as other songs were released on CD in 1996 - together with audio explanations of the cartoon character Wao Hao.

Filmography

Movies

• 1983: Hit the gas - I want fun
• 1985: Richy Guitar (guest role)
• 1987: The Invisible One
• 2015: Appearance in B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin 1979–1989 , a documentary with Mark Reeder , Jörg A. Hoppe , Klaus Maeck , Heiko Lange and Alexander von Sturmfeder

synchronization

• 1998: The Magic Sword - The Legend of Camelot - "Kayley" (vocals)
• 1999: Tobias Totz and his lion - the lion's friend "Lea"
• 2001: The Abrafaxe - Under the Black Flag - "Anne Bonny"
• 2002: Peter Pan: New Adventures in Neverland (vocals)
• 2006: Arthur and the Minimoys - "Princess Selenia"
• 2006: Eragon - The Legacy of the Dragon Riders - "Saphira"

literature

• Nena: Will you go with me . Autobiography. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2005, ISBN 3-404-61598-0 .

Documentation

• Nena - a German legend . ZDF History, April 11, 2020, 44 minutes ( ZDF Mediathek until March 20, 2021 )

Awards

• 1982: Golden Bravo Otto "Best German Singer"
• 1983: Golden Bravo Otto "Best German Group"
• 1983: Golden Pop Rocky Smurf "Best German Group"
• 1984: Golden Europe "Best Pop Album of the Year"
• 1984: Golden Bravo Otto "Best German Group"
• 1984: Golden Pop Rocky Smurf "Best German Group"
• 1990: “ Goldene Stimmgabel ” Most successful interpreter in 1989/90
• 1991: RSH-Gold most successful singer of the year
• 1993: RSH Gold Comeback of the Year
• 1993: RSH-Gold artist national
• 1994: " Goldene Stimmgabel " Most successful pop interpreter
• 2002: “ Goldene Stimmgabel ” Most successful pop interpreter
• 2002: 1 Live Krone Lifetime Achievement
• 2003: Dance Music Award Best Video (Oldskool Baby)
• 2003: Echo most successful artist nationally
• 2003: Comet (music award) national artist
• 2003: Goldene Henne (audience award) national artist
• 2003: Golden Laura, most successful woman of the year
• 2004: Amadeus Austrian Music Award most successful singer
• 2004: Women's World Awards - World Artist Award
• 2004: Fred Jay Prize
• 2004: Golden Honor Bravo Otto Lifetime Achievement
• 2008: German Prize for Business Communication Special prize for the New School Hamburg
• 2008: German Children's Prize (Honorary Prize)
• 2010: Sexiest Female Vegetarian , online voting by the organization Peta
• 2011: PLATIN COMET special award
• 2015: Berlin Bear (BZ Culture Prize) (Honorary Prize)
• 2015: Victress Award (Honorary Award for Special Merit in Music)
• 2015: Steiger Award (Music National)
• 2015: GreenTec Award (Music Category)
• 2019: Lea Award "Best indoor tour 2018"

Web links

Commons : Nena  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Nena in the German dubbing file
• Literature by and about Nena in the catalog of the German National Library
• Official website
• Nena on MusicBrainz (English)
• Nena in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Our thoughts and actions need new impulses ( Memento from September 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Interview and short biography on Newethics
2. ↑ Top 10: The most successful German pop singers. diebestentop10.de
3. ↑ nena - translation in Spanish. In: LEO. Retrieved February 18, 2018 . 
4. ↑ But where does the name Nena come from? During a holiday in Spain when Gabriele was three years old, the Spanish called her “nena”, a slang word for “little girl”. In: Munich evening newspaper . ( Abendzeitung-muenchen.de [accessed on February 18, 2018]).
5. ↑ Jens Stubbe: Singer Nena is committed to her hometown of Hagen. In: derwesten .de. March 3, 2015, accessed April 19, 2015 . 
6. ↑ spiegel.de, accessed on March 2, 2020
7. ↑ As stated in the Tagesspiegel of July 31, 2016 SS 1.
8. ↑ Nena: "There are really no new songs" . In: Der Stern , June 22, 2005
9. ↑ Grandma again. In: sueddeutsche.de. May 17, 2010, accessed March 9, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Nadine Schimroszik: Nena founds a private school ( Memento from October 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesspiegel . April 5, 2007
11. ↑ Oma in Extase , Süddeutsche Zeitung ; Nena is a fan of Bhagwan guru Osho , Die Welt , September 26, 2009
12. ↑ Bill Kaulitz and Nena are 'Sexiest Vegetarians 2010' . In: Peta.de . PETA Germany. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
13. ↑ These celebrities are vegan . Gala. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
14. ↑ See en: The Stripes
15. ↑ wdr.de as of September 13, 1982 . wdr.de; Retrieved September 13, 2012
16. ↑ 99 Balloons and the Chaos of Emotions . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1984 ( online ).
17. ^ WestBam And Nena * - Oldschool, Baby. discogs.com
18. ↑ austriancharts.at
19. ↑ 15 exemplary projects from all over Germany awarded: Nena receives honorary award and color over her head. (No longer available online.) World Vision Germany , archived from the original on July 12, 2010 ; Retrieved July 12, 2010 . 
20. ↑ 99 balloons from Nena for ARTE on youtube
21. ↑ Report on nena.de
22. ↑ Nena becomes the title star in the new Otto catalog . In: Hamburger Abendblatt ; Retrieved December 2, 2009
23. ↑ Defense industry - ideal world . In: Die Zeit , No. 45/2010
24. ↑ Die Atzen publish party chaos. Weser-Kurier, March 18, 2011, accessed on November 17, 2012 . 
25. ↑ "The Voice": Nena and Naidoo are in the jury. DWDL.de , July 11, 2011, accessed on November 17, 2012 . 
26. ↑ Nena leaves "Voice of Germany". Spiegel Online , March 23, 2014, accessed March 23, 2014 . 
27. ↑ Concerts are postponed. nena.de, December 2, 2011, accessed on November 17, 2012 . 
28. ↑ Sing my song 2016: The third season with Nena. January 5, 2016, accessed April 12, 2016 . 
29. ↑ Nena returns to The Voice - but not alone. October 23, 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2016 . 
30. ↑ You should know that about the Nena concert in Berlin. June 13, 2018, accessed June 19, 2018 . 
31. ↑ Just in time for her 60th birthday, Nena releases the new single "Licht". Retrieved March 27, 2020 . 
32. ↑ CD Nena and the Bamboo Bear Gang at nena.de, accessed on April 28, 2018.
33. ↑ RSH Gold Award 1993
34. ↑ ^{a b} RSH Gold Award 1993