Flashback Friday: Nena ’99 Red Balloons’

This Flashback Friday Spotlight takes us to the song about an accidental nuclear war. A war caused by a bag of red helium balloons released, which are falsely detected by East German radar as NATO guided missiles. There is a panic about an attack on the Soviets, a red alert, which leads to a hostile response, a nuclear war. It's the 1982 hit '99 Red Balloons' by Nena.

The song's concept came from a totally different time in history between Western and Soviet nations. A time when there was a great fear of a nuclear war. This brings us back to the song and its German roots. East Germany was considered a satellite state of the Soviet Union, which controlled half of Berlin. It's wild to think about it today, this city was divided by a guarded wall. The purpose was supposedly to keep Western 'fascists' from entering East Germany to corrupt its socialist state. When in reality, it was more about keeping people from defecting to the West.

Gabriele Susanne Kerner, who goes by the stage name of Nena, lived in West Berlin, a free democracy. The song's inspiration came from seeing a red helium balloon go up in the air and thoughts about it floating over into East Berlin and the reaction from the Soviets, if it was falsely thought to be an attack.

The song became a huge hit in many nations around the world. It shouldn't be surprising, as kids from the 80s will tell you, pop culture was obsessed by the tension of the Cold War and rivalry between the USA and Soviet Union. This period made its mark with 80s movies like, 'War Games,' and video games like 'Missle Command.' Plus, the song in our spotlight.

This tension between Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Western nations even spilled into the Olympics. 65 countries, including the USA, boycotted the 1980 Moscow games. In return, the USSR boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles games.

The wall is gone and so is the Communist Party led Soviet Union. What we have now is new Russian Federation being showcased as the host of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Let's check out the videos to this week's B101.7 Flashback Friday Spotlight!

Nena originally recorded the song in their native German language and called it, '99 Luftballons.'

Nena '99 Luftballoons'

Here's the English version of the song.

Nena '99 Red Balloons'

Listen to B101.7 Friday at 5pm for the Flashback Friday Spotlight with Greg Thomas. Get more flashbacks with the B101.7 Saturday Night Party, 8pm-1am, with Louie Linguini.