# 99 Luftballons

"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.

## 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 Mylar 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 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 defense 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 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."

## Music video

The promotional video, which was originally made for the Dutch music programme TopPop and broadcast on 13 March 1983, was shot in a Dutch military training camp, 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
### 2002 re-release

| Chart (2002) | Peak position |
| Belgium (Ultratip Bubbling Under Flanders) | 17 |
| Germany (GfK) | 28 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100) | 82 |
| Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) | 77 |

## Certifications
### German version

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark) | Platinum | 90,000$^‡$ |
| France (SNEP) | Gold | 500,000$^*$ |
| Germany (BVMI) | Gold | 500,000$^^$ |
| Netherlands (NVPI) | Gold | 100,000$^^$ |
| United States (RIAA) | Gold | 1,000,000$^^$ |
| $^*$ Sales figures based on certification alone. $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||

### English version

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Canada (Music Canada) | Platinum | 100,000$^^$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Platinum | 600,000$^‡$ |
| $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||

## Goldfinger version

American rock band Goldfinger released their version of the song as the first single for their album Stomping Ground in 2000. The verses are sung in English, while the bridge of the song is sung in German.
They rerecorded the song for the deluxe edition of their album Never Look Back in 2022, with Travis Barker on drums. The song was used in the 2024 film Sonic the Hedgehog 3.