Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". In the same year the band re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena's re-recording of some of the band's old hit songs as a solo artist, produced by the co-composer of most of them, her former Nena band colleague and keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, rekindled her solo career in 2002. Combined with the success of the Nena band years, she has sold over 25 million records, making her the most successful German pop singer in chart history.
Gabriele Susanne Kerner was born on 24 March 1960 in Hagen, West Germany, while her family lived in the nearby town of Breckerfeld. She spent the earliest part of her childhood in Breckerfeld and later lived in Hagen. She acquired her nickname while on a vacation to Mallorca, Spain with her parents. (Nena is a Spanish and Catalan word meaning "girl".) In 1977, she left high school before graduation, and in the three following years she was trained as a goldsmith.
Nena's musical career began on 2 July 1979 when guitarist Rainer Kitzmann founded The Stripes and, on the basis of having seen her dancing at a local disco, asked her to audition for the position of the lead singer. The group, based in Hagen, performed songs with English lyrics and had a minor hit with the song "Ecstasy", but never achieved mainstream success and disbanded on 3 March 1982. However, The Stripes's record company, CBS, offered Nena a record deal if she would move to Berlin and make music with German lyrics. In May 1982, Nena and her then-boyfriend Rolf Brendel moved to West Berlin, where they met future band members guitarist Carlo Karges, keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, and bass player Jürgen Dehmel. Together, they formed the band Nena.
In June 1982, they released their first single, "Nur geträumt", which became an instant hit in Germany after the band appeared on the German television show Musikladen on 21 August 1982. The single reportedly sold 40,000 copies the day after the song appeared on the show and reached No. 2 in the German charts.

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