When did Nena write the song 99 Red Balloons?
It was written shortly before it was recorded in 1982. While at a Rolling Stones concert in Berlin, Nena’s guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that balloons were being released. As he watched them move toward the horizon, he noticed them shifting and changing shapes, where they looked nothing like a mass of balloons but some strange spacecraft. (The word in the German lyrics “UFO”) He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector. Both the English and German versions of the song tell a story of ninety-nine balloons floating into the air, triggering an apocalyptic overreaction by military forces. The music was composed by Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, the keyboardist of Nena’s band, while Karges wrote the original German lyrics. Kevin McAlea wrote the English version, titled “99 Red Balloons” (on an envelope, which he claims to still have), which has a more satirical tone than the original. The English version is not a direct translation of the German b
