"99 Luftballons" (German: Neunundneunzig Luftballons, "99 balloons") is a song by the West German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons" (German: Neunundneunzig Rote Luftballons), with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena on the album 99 Luftballons in 1984 after widespread success of the original in Europe and Japan. The English version is not a direct translation of the German original and contains lyrics with a somewhat different meaning. In the US, the English-language version did not chart, while the German-language recording became Nena's only US hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Background to lyrics
While at a June 1982 concert by the Rolling Stones in West Berlin, Nena's guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that balloons were being released. He watched them move toward the horizon, shifting and changing shapes like strange spacecraft (referred to in the German lyrics as a "UFO"). He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to East Berlin.
Also cited by the band was a 1973 newspaper article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal about five high school students who played a prank to simulate a UFO by launching 99 (one was lost from the original 100) aluminized boPET balloons attached with ribbons to a traffic flare. The red flame from the flare reflected by the balloons gave the appearance of a large pulsating red object floating over Red Rock Canyon outside the Las Vegas Valley in Nevada.
A direct translation of the title is sometimes given as "Ninety-Nine Air Balloons", but the song became known in English as "Ninety-Nine Red Balloons". The phrase is repeated in the lyrics, and has the same meter as the German original.
The lyrics of the original German version tell a story: 99 balloons are mistaken for UFOs, causing a military general to send pilots to investigate. Finding nothing but balloons, the pilots put on a large show of firepower. The display of force worries the nations along the borders and the defence ministers on each side encourage conflict to grab power for themselves. In the end, a cataclysmic war results from the otherwise harmless flight of balloons and causes devastation on all sides without a victor, as indicated in the denouement of the song: "99 Jahre Krieg ließen keinen Platz für Sieger," which means "99 years of war left no room for victors." The anti-war song finishes with the singer walking through the devastated ruins of the world and finding a single balloon. The description of what happens in the final line of the piece is the same in German and English: "'Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen," or "Think of you and let it go."
English version and other re-recordings
The English version retains the spirit of the original narrative, but many of the lyrics are translated poetically rather than being directly translated: red helium balloons are casually released by the civilian singer (narrator) with her unnamed friend into the sky and are mistakenly registered by a faulty early warning system as enemy contacts, resulting in panic and eventually nuclear war, with the end of the song near-identical to the end of the original German version.
From the outset, Nena (the lead singer) and other members of the band expressed mild disapproval of the English version of the song, "99 Red Balloons". In March 1984, the band's keyboardist and song co-writer Uwe Fahrenkrog Petersen said, "We made a mistake there. I think the song loses something in translation and even sounds silly." In another interview that month, the band, including Nena herself, were quoted as being "not completely satisfied" with the English version, since it was "too blatant" for a group not wishing to be seen as a protest band.
Two re-recordings of the original German version of the song have been released by Nena the singer: a modern ballad version, which was included on Nena feat. Nena (2002), and a 2009 retro version, which originally aired as an animated video on the European Arte channel (as part of a special called "Summer of the '80s") and included some portions in French (specifically, the second part of the first verse and the entire final verse). Nena later formally released this rendition on her 2010 Best of Nena compilation, but the French text was omitted and replaced with the original German lyrics.
Live recordings of the song are included on all seven of Nena's live albums, dating from 1995 to 2018.
Reception
American and Australian audiences preferred the original German version, which became a very successful non-English-language song, topping charts in both countries, reaching number one on the Cashbox chart, Kent Music Report, and number two on the Billboard Hot 100, behind "Jump" by Van Halen. It was certified gold by the RIAA. The later-released English translation, "99 Red Balloons", topped the charts in Canada and on the UK singles chart and Irish Singles Chart.
In his 2010 book Music: What Happened?, critic and musician Scott Miller declared that the song possesses "one of the best hooks of the '80s" and listed it among his top song picks for 1984. Nonetheless, he cautioned: "It must be admitted that this song suffers from an embarrassingly out-of-place disco funk interlude, and the word Kriegsminister."
Use as a Cold War anthem
Both versions of the song have been used as Cold War protest songs. They were released at a time when the threat of nuclear war was imminent from the then-ongoing Cold War. Songs with Cold War connotations were not new. Music critic David Browne explains that "broader-ranging Cold War anxieties had wormed their way into rock 'n' roll years before most songwriters had heard the word 'Cambodia'". As a result, there were lots of Cold War protest songs that were released around this time, such as Sting's "Russians". The lyrics address the anxieties surrounding the threat of nuclear war, indicative of the unstable political climate at the time. While the song's narrative may seem absurd, they emphasize how easily the world could fall apart. In the ending of both versions, the world was left in ruin by what is assumed to be nuclear weapons.
While both versions are anti-war songs, they have differences in their meaning. In the original German version, a misunderstanding from surrounding countries causes the war that takes place in the song. An episode from the "Professor of Rock" podcast explains that the original German version is about a small issue turning into a major issue if it isn't dealt with quickly. This refers to a war starting over balloons being released into the sky. The podcast episode also shows that the English version, "99 Red Balloons", focuses more on political drama. This is evident from the lyrics, "Worry worry super scurry / Call the troops out in a hurry / This is what we've waited for / This is it boys, this is war". Whether or not this is true, "99 Luftballons" wasn't meant to be political. According to Nena, "99 Luftballons" is about being aware of our actions and promoting peace.
Music video
The promotional video, which was originally made for the Dutch music programme TopPop and broadcast on 13 March 1983, was shot at Harskamp, a Dutch military training camp, with the band performing the song on a stage in front of a backdrop of fires and explosions provided by the Dutch Army. Towards the end of the video, the band are seen taking cover and abandoning the stage, which was unplanned and genuine since they believed the explosive blasts were getting out of control.
VH1 Classic, an American cable television station, ran a charity event for Hurricane Katrina relief in 2006. Viewers who made donations were allowed to choose which music videos the station would play. One viewer donated $35,000 for the right to program an entire hour and requested continuous play of "99 Luftballons" and "99 Red Balloons" videos. The station broadcast the videos as requested on 26 March 2006.
Charts
Certifications
Goldfinger version
Many artists have covered both versions of the song. One of the more successful was the American rock band Goldfinger's 2000 release of "99 Red Balloons" as the first single from their Stomping Ground album. Most verses are performed in English except for the fourth, which is sung in German. At the end, the lead singer John Feldmann quietly says, "Good night, children everywhere."
In 2022, for the deluxe edition of their album Never Look Back, Goldfinger rerecorded the song with Travis Barker on drums.
Goldfinger's take has also been featured in several feature films, including Not Another Teen Movie (2001), EuroTrip (2004) and in the 2024 movie Sonic the Hedgehog 3.