"99 Red Balloons" – Nena
This song always sends chills down my spine. Released in 1983, in the midst of Cold War tensions, the English-translated version of the song is about a couple that releases 99 red balloons into the air, which the government mistakes for a potential military threat. Panicked, "ninety-nine ministers meet" and hastily authorize the use of military force against the ninety-nine red balloons. They order a group of ninety-nine air force pilots to intercept the potential threat and "identify, clarify and classify" it. This show of military force is seen by other nations as an act of war. The confusion and strife-torn atmosphere catalyzes a devastating nuclear war that destroys both sides of the armed conflict.
The song was released at a time when the possibility of the events described in the song actually happening was very, very real. The United States and the Soviet Union – the two global superpowers – had huge stockpiles of nuclear weaponry. The most tense moment, the Cuban Missile Crisis, occurred between October 16–28, 1962. It was, perhaps, what felt like the longest 13-day period in the history of the United States: after the United States' embarrassing failure with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Soviet Union agreed to deploy nuclear ballistic missiles to Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba by the United States. Ballistic missiles are those that have a predetermined target – all that's necessary is a single go-signal for them to launch and unleash their complete and utter destruction on that target. Needless to say, the target during those indescribably tense weeks of 1962 was the United States of America. It is difficult to really comprehend just how terrifying it must have felt to have enemy missiles so terribly close to home – how it must have felt to have the devastating power of nuclear weaponry, to have millions of lives eliminated from the Earth, at the press of a button. The Cuban Missile Crisis is frequently cited as the closest the world ever came to a full-scale nuclear war.
"99 Red Balloons" (German: "99 Luftballons") was originally written and recorded in German by the band Nena; the English version is not a direct translation, but the underlying message of the song is the same. The last stanza of the song is deeply chilling: some time later, after the nuclear war has lain waste to the world, the singer stands, alone, above the rubble, and tries to find some proof that the world once existed...
The song was released at a time when the possibility of the events described in the song actually happening was very, very real. The United States and the Soviet Union – the two global superpowers – had huge stockpiles of nuclear weaponry. The most tense moment, the Cuban Missile Crisis, occurred between October 16–28, 1962. It was, perhaps, what felt like the longest 13-day period in the history of the United States: after the United States' embarrassing failure with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Soviet Union agreed to deploy nuclear ballistic missiles to Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba by the United States. Ballistic missiles are those that have a predetermined target – all that's necessary is a single go-signal for them to launch and unleash their complete and utter destruction on that target. Needless to say, the target during those indescribably tense weeks of 1962 was the United States of America. It is difficult to really comprehend just how terrifying it must have felt to have enemy missiles so terribly close to home – how it must have felt to have the devastating power of nuclear weaponry, to have millions of lives eliminated from the Earth, at the press of a button. The Cuban Missile Crisis is frequently cited as the closest the world ever came to a full-scale nuclear war.
"99 Red Balloons" (German: "99 Luftballons") was originally written and recorded in German by the band Nena; the English version is not a direct translation, but the underlying message of the song is the same. The last stanza of the song is deeply chilling: some time later, after the nuclear war has lain waste to the world, the singer stands, alone, above the rubble, and tries to find some proof that the world once existed...
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
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
Where ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine 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
Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a super hero
Everyone's a captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scrambled in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here it is: a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go...