36 Facts About Nena

Nena's re-recording of some of the band's old hit songs as a solo artist, produced by the co-composer of most of them, her former Nena band colleague and keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, rekindled her solo career in 2002.

Nena was the oldest out of three children; her father was a teacher.

Nena spent the earliest part of her childhood in Breckerfeld and later lived in Hagen.

In 1983, the band released its first album Nena, which contained the singles "99 Luftballons" and "Leuchtturm".

In May 1984, while on a tour in the UK, Nena made the headlines of the British red-top press for having unshaved armpits.

The band split in 1987 and Nena went solo thereafter.

The title track, composed by Nena herself, relates to the fact that Nena was at the time pregnant with twins, but release of the album that appeared just four days before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fact that she performed the song at the end of the Konzert fur Berlin three days later has ever since associated it with that historic event.

In 1993, following the indifferent performance of her second solo album Bongo Girl, Sony decided not to renew Nena's recording contract, and the label which distributed her third album, RMG Music Entertainment, disappeared shortly afterwards.

In 2002, Nena celebrated her 20th anniversary on stage with the album Nena feat.

In October 2007, Nena released a new album entitled Cover Me, made up entirely of cover songs.

Nena released the single, "Ich kann nix dafur" in April 2007 for the film, Vollidiot, and her cover of "She's a Rainbow" by the Rolling Stones in the US and the UK.

Nena released a new single on 18 September 2009, called "Wir sind wahr", and a new album on 2 October: Made in Germany.

Nena collaborated with the popular techno-rap artists Die Atzen to produce a new single, "Strobo Pop".

In late 2012, Nena released her 11th solo studio album, Du bist gut, which peaked at 2 in the German charts, although the tracks released as singles from the album were not as successful as those from her previous albums since her 2002 "comeback".

In February 2019 Nena provided vocals for the title track and lead single of Schiller's album Morgenstund which entered the German album chart at number 1 and the top 10 of both the Austrian and Swiss album charts.

In February 2020 Nena announced new music would be published "soon" and a month later on her 60th birthday released the single "Licht", which became the title track of her next studio album released on 16 October.

Since 1997, Nena has toured Germany and its neighbouring countries annually, typically performing between 15 and 50 concerts every year.

In 2004, Nena went on stage at the Mayday Music Festival in Dortmund, accompanied by the techno duo Toktok.

Nena sang the song "Bang Bang", and was later joined on stage by DJ Westbam to perform "Oldschool Baby".

In March 2015, Nena promoted the release of the Oldschool album with a "club tour" of 16 smaller venues including her former primary school.

Later in 2015, Nena announced her intention to perform live in the US for the first time by way of a similar "club tour", which was initially planned for early 2016 before taking place as a three-date "mini tour" in September and October.

However, in July 2021, organisers cancelled her appearances in some festivals after Nena encouraged fans to disregard social-distancing rules during a concert in Berlin.

Kaulitz has stated on many occasions that Nena is his favourite singer.

In 2008, Nena appeared as one of the coaches on the German TV series Dein Song, in which established artists mentor a youngster to produce a song.

Nena was one of the coaches on The Voice of Germany for 3 seasons before announcing her withdrawal from the show in March 2014.

In February 2017 and 2018, Nena appeared as a juror in the fifth and sixth seasons of The Voice Kids together with her daughter Larissa.

Nena wrote an autobiographical book, Willst du mit mir gehn, jointly with Claudia Thesenfitz, a journalist.

Nena's contributions are her disparate accounts of various episodes in her life.

Since becoming a mother, Nena has released a number of albums consisting of songs for children.

Nena has covered their songs in concert and on her 2007 Cover Me album.

In March 2021 Nena expressed her support for the anti-COVID-19 lockdown demonstration in Kassel.

Nena is a vegetarian and won the PETA award for "Sexiest Vegetarian of the Year 2010".

Nena believes in Jesus and God and says that thanking him for every new day is the cornerstone of her spirituality.

Nena then started dating Swiss actor Benedict Freitag shortly after the band separated in 1987; he is the son of the German actress Maria Becker and Austrian-Swiss actor Robert Freitag.

The couple had three children together, the first being Christopher Daniel, who was born disabled allegedly due to medical errors made during the birth that caused Nena to go into cardiac arrest.

On Christmas Day 2009, Nena became a grandmother when Larissa gave birth to a girl, Carla Maria.