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Date of Birth: March 24, 1960
Place of Birth: Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Nena spent the earliest part of her childhood in Breckerfeld and later lived in Hagen. She acquired her nickname, the German transliteration of "Nina", a Spanish word meaning "little girl", at the age of three, while on a vacation to Spain with her parents.

In 1977 she left high school prior to graduation, and in the three following years she was trained as a goldsmith.

In the summer of 1979, Rainer Kitzmann offered her a position as the lead singer in his band, The Stripes.

In 1981, Nena and Rolf Brendel moved to West Berlin, where they formed the Band "Nena" with Carlo Karges, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, and Jürgen Dehmel.

In 1982 they released their first single, Nur Geträumt, which became a hit after the band appeared on the German television show Musikladen. It reached number two on the German charts.

In 1983, the band released their first album, Nena. 99 Luftballons, one of the songs on the album, became a number one hit in Germany.

99 Luftballons became an international hit in 1984, with an English version making number one in the United Kingdom and the original German version making number two in the United States.

The band continued to be successful in Europe in the following years.

The band split up in 1987, and Nena went solo.

Nena began a relationship with Benedict Freitag shortly after the band split. Their first child was Christopher Daniel, who was born disabled and died at eleven months.

In 1990 Nena gave birth to twins, Larissa Maria and Sakias Manuel.

She eventually split with Freitag, and began a relationship with Phillip Palm.

In 1995 she gave birth to Samuel Vincent.

In 1997 she gave birth to Simeon Joel.

In 2002, Nena's 20th anniversary as a performer, she released the album Nena feat. Nena.

The remake of "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime" as an English-German duet with Kim Wilde reached number 1 in the Netherlands and Austria, and number 3 in Germany, in 2003. On September 20, she sang the English and German versions of 99 Luftballons at the Howard Jones 20th Anniversary Concert at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.

In 2005, Nena released the album Willst Du Mit Mir Geh'n, which went platinum. She toured Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in November and December.

In April 2007, Nena released the single Ich Kann Nix Dafür, for the movie Vollidiot. In October, she released the album Cover Me, consisting entirely of cover songs. That same year, she founded the Neue Schule Hamburg with Philipp Palm, Thomas Simmerl, and Silke Steinfadt.

Wikipedia
IMDb

Nena videos can be found here.
A Nena screensaver is in the The Screensaver Universe.
Nena links can be found on the Links page.
Nena lyrics can be found at the Lyric Sheet.
Nena's astrological birth chart here.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

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