As you may have noticed my musical tastes can be…different. For some reason I like foreign language music. French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and so on. I got some music in quite a few different languages. German is one of my more numerous languages. Rammstein, J.B.O., Peter Schilling, Falco and of course, Nena.
Yes Nena, she of the 99 red balloons. I have several albums and enjoy them still. Here is one of her, perhaps, lesser known songs. As an added bonus it is a duet with Kim Wilde. Yes, “Kids in America”, that Wilde. Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/LrKlO1Tr2IE
So do your musical tastes run to any other languages? Share with us your darkest secrets.
The opening, at least, has a bit of an “A-Ha/Take On Me” feel to it.
Pardon my “well ackshually” moment but wasn’t 99 Red Baloons, 99 Luftbalons in German? Any wouldn’t that make it translate to “99 baloons in the air” roughly?
It doesn’t bother me as much as After The Fire’s version of Der Kommissar. I really don’t like that version. If Falco wanted it in English they would have sung it in English! They (kind of) sang Rock Me Amadeaus in English.
I blame MTV.
Yes the strict translation would be “air balloons” as Luft in German means Air (Luftwaffe anyone?) but, Nena did sing the english version and she did sing it as 99 red balloons so there you go. Often when a song gets translated because of Idioms and rhyming the literal translations get lost in, well, translation.
Falco’s version of Der Kommisar does have some english in it. He kind of mixes it in with most of his songs.
Here is a good link to what the straight translation would be.
https://www.thoughtco.com/nenas-99-luftballons-song-4076776
It is a side by side comparison which I can’t cut and paste here.
Compare it with the English translation Nena sang.
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
99 red balloons go by
99 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 99 red balloons go by
99 Decision street
99 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 99 red balloons go by
99 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
Scramble in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by
99 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 is a red balloon
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go
I enjoy hearing “Mickey” in other languages.
Kathleen MacInnes is a wonder.
Warning: May Be Addictive.
If you like foreign language music, check out The HU and Bloodywood.
https://youtu.be/jM8dCGIm6yc
https://youtu.be/i4FqGPRQWFM
My favorite foreign language recordings were two different versions of “The Americans” by Byron MacGregor and Gordon Sinclair (who wrote it). It was performed in Canadian, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Canadian English?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhGA5W0_G6g&w=560&h=315%5D
They can’t hardly speak no good English up there.
And Corb Lund.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Yo5gEVhvM&w=560&h=315%5D
No mention of Die Toten Hosen, Bohse Onkels or Fury in the Slaughterhouse?
And you really cut to the video without saying, “Now ist the time on Sprockets venn we dance.”
Touch my monkey!
Thanks for the tips. I did a brief check and they all sound pretty good. When I have more time I’ll do a deeper listen.