About Me
Nena was born Gabriele Susanne Kerner in 1960 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She acquired her nickname, "Nena", an alternate version of the Spanish word "niña" (little girl) during a vacation to Spain at the age of three. In 1977 she left high school prior her graduation to receive training as a goldsmith. Around the same time guitarist Rainer Kitzmann offered e=her to become the lead singer of his band, The Stripes. The group had a minor hit with the song "Ecstasy" but never managed to achieve broad success, and soon split.In 1981 Nena and her boyfriend Rolf Brendel moved to West-Berlin, where they met their later band members: guitarist Carlo Karges, keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and bass player Jürgen Dehmel. A year later the band released their first single, "Nur geträumt" ("Only In Dreams"), which came to fame after the band appeared on the German television show "Musikladen".The following year the band released its self-titled first album, which contained the singles "Leuchtturm" ("Lighthouse") and "99 Luftballons" ("99 Balloons"). The latter one quite accidentally got into the hands of a few Californian DJs, who helped to promote the song internationally. However, the single managed to became a worldwide ..1 hit, becoming Nena's most popular song to date. Nena then released ? (Fragezeichen) in 1984, Feuer und Flamme ("Fire and Flame") in 1985, It's All In The Game (featuring English versions of the songs on Feuer und Flamme) and Eisbrecher ("Icebreaker") in 1986. Despite achieving constant success the group decided to go their separate ways in 1987.Nena started dating Swiss actor Benedict Freitag shortly after the breakup of the band in 1987. The couple had three children together, the first one being Christopher Daniel, who was born disabled due to medical mistakes made during the birth that caused Nena to go into cardiac arrest. He died at the age of 11 months. In 1990 they had twins, Larissa Maria and Sakias Manuel. After splitting with Freitag, Nena started a relationship with drummer and music producer Philipp Palm from Stuttgart, with whom she has two children, Samuel Vincent (1995) and Simeon Joel (1997). The couple and the four children live in Hamburg today.Throughout the late 1980s and the 1990s, Nena released a wide range of moderately successful solo albums, quite a few of them consisting of songs for children. Simultaneously, she hosted several TV shows, including Metro and the German preselection Countdown Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. In 2002, Nena celebrated her 20th stage anniversary with the album "Nena feat. Nena", a CD consisting of newly arranged remakes of her own hits from the '80s. The jubilee album meant an incredible comeback for Nena, which once again spawned a number of successful chart entries. The remake of "Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann" as an English-German duet with Kim Wilde, "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime" was a major hit in various European countries, hitting the No.1 spot in the Netherlands and Austria, and No.3 in Germany respectively in 2003. She soon released a live DVD. Nena's 2005 album "Willst du mit mir gehn" ("Do You Wanna Go with Me?") quickly achieved platinum status as well. The first single from the album, "Liebe ist" ("Love Is"), shot to ..1 on the German charts in early 2005 and was used as the theme song for a German telenovela. Nena's "Willst du mit mir gehn Tour 2005" throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in November and December 2005 was another tremendous success for Nena, consisting of numerous sold-out concerts.In 2006, Nena plans to found a Sudbury school in Hamburg and to release a new DVD in June 2006 regarding her latest successful live tour (however, this is a rumor at the moment and some speculate that Europatour `84 is that DVD). Sony BMG, Nena's old label, has released a 3-CD set called Alles and a 2-CD set containing very rare tracks called Einmal Ist keinmal, and will re-release Europatour `84 as a DVD in June 2006. Nena has also continued to work on some songs for her next studio album that is expected to come out in October 2006.
