Lyrics Got Loud

Nena's guitarist, Carlo Karges, got the idea for the song at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin. At one point during the show, the band released a bunch of balloons. Carlo watched as one of those balloons drifted over the wall into East Berlin. He imagined a radar picking up that one balloon and mistaking it for an enemy plane. Carlo wrote the lyric and Nena's keyboard player, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, wrote the music. The song is an anti-cold war protest song.

The song was written in German, but the record label convinced the band to release the track in the US with English lyrics. Their record company had no intention of releasing it in America until a disc jockey at the radio station KROQ in Los Angeles found a copy and started playing it. Nena recorded an English version with the title translated as "99 Red Balloons" and released it in the US, but most radio stations played the original German version, which was the hit, climbing to #2 on March 3, 1984.

The English and German lyrics do differ as the band needed to keep the poetry of the song complete to be in line with the music.

German Lyrics Translated to English

Do you have you some time for me, if so I'll sing a song for you about 99 balloons on their way to the horizon. Maybe you're thinking about me right now if so I'll sing a song for you about 99 balloons and that such a thing comes from such a thing.
99 balloons on their way to the horizon People think they're UFOs from space so a general sent up a fighter squadron after them Sound the alarm if it's so but there on the horizon were only 99 balloons.
99 fighter jets Each one's a great warrior Thought they were Captain Kirk then came a lot of fireworks the neighbors didn't understand anything and felt like they were being provoked so they shot at the horizon at 99 balloons.
99 war ministers matches and gasoline canisters They thought they were clever people already smelled a nice bounty Called for war and wanted power. Man, who would've thought that things would someday go so far because of 99 balloons.
99 years of war left no room for victors. There are no more war ministers nor any jet fighters. Today I'm making my rounds see the world lying in ruins. I found a balloon, think of you and let it fly (away).

English Lyrics:

[Intro]
You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Something's out there!"
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
[Instrumental Interlude]

[Verse 1]

Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert!
There's something here from somewhere else!
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
When ninety-nine red balloons go by
[Verse 2]
99 Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To 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
The president is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
[Verse 3]
Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a superhero
Everyone's a "Captain Kirk"
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Outro]
Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In every one, a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go...