Nena fortune

Short introduction

Gabriele Susanne Kerner was born on March 24, 1960 in Hagen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. She became known as a singer under the stage name Nena, who also had international success.

Early life

Gabriele, whose real name is Nena, grew up with a younger brother and a younger sister. She left high school after the eleventh grade. Nena, a trained goldsmith, became a singer in a band. In 1978 she made her first live appearances with The Stripes, followed in late 1979 by the first released single. The LP and the other singles were not a great success. The Stripes split in 1981.

Career

Nena moved to West Berlin with her boyfriend and founded the band Nena there. Thanks to the appearance on television, the public became aware of the band Nena and the band reached a place in the German charts with the song “Nur dreamed”. The single “99 balloons” followed. This song was discovered by accident by a DJ in Los Angeles, subsequently spread throughout North America and was sold millions of times in the United States. The song became an international mega hit.

More albums followed before the band broke up in 1987 and Nena started her solo career some time later. She also released some children’s song albums and appeared on television more often, both as an actress and as a presenter. In 2002 she made a comeback with new versions of her old hits. In 2003 the Nenas duet with Kim Wilde was released. The song “Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime” is a remake of an earlier hit. In Germany it came third in the charts. Even after this remake hit, she appeared on television more often, not just as a singer. In 2011, Nena was a jury member and coach in the casting show “The Voice of Germany”.

In summer 2018, Nena celebrated her fortieth anniversary as a singer and toured through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Career highlights

Without a doubt, the song “99 balloons” was the highlight of Nena’s career. The song reached the top of the charts not only in Germany, also in Mexico, Canada, Japan and Australia. The German version reached the second place on the Billboard charts in the USA and the English version “99 Red Balloons” in the UK charts first place.

Famous quotes

Nena expressed her love for children and about the children who suffer from hunger with the following quote: “As long as children in the world are hungry, there can be no cooking shows.”

But she also expressed her philosophical side and her wisdom with one of her famous quotes. She once said that you don’t grow old because you have lived for a certain number of years. You would grow old if you gave up your ideals.

Amazing facts

At the age of three, Gabriele was on vacation with her families in Spain. There the locals called her Nena, which means “little girl”. Gabriele’s parents liked this nickname and from then on Nena was Gabriele’s nickname. That is just one of the amazing facts about Nena. Here are four more interesting facts about Nena that should only be known to die-hard fans.

Nena was asked in the Madison discotheque in Hagen whether she wanted to join The Stripes as a singer.

Christiane F., who became famous for the book “We Children from the Zoo Station”, was largely responsible for the international success of “99 balloons”. She took the song along with other German songs to the USA. There a DJ became aware of the song.

Since the song “99 Balloons” or the English version was Nena’s only hit outside Europe, it is considered a so-called one-hit wonder in these two countries.

Nena is a vegan and was awarded the “Sexiest Vegetarian of the Year 2010” by PETA Germany for her lifestyle.