Talk:99 Luftballons

Luftballons

Doesn't luftballons actually literally translate into "air balloons"?

Yes it does. Editing. - VJ Emsi

Actually no, probably "toy balloon"

The translation of "luftballons" is just "balloons". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.33.60.39 (talk) 03:25, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Someone should check their German - "toy" is spielzeug, luft is "air"

I checked in both dictionary and on my class. It's "air ballons". Keaze

Someone has changed the translation to "air balloons". I've changed it to 'balloons'. This is the usual and correct translation. English uses 'balloon' unqualified to signify the type of balloon at issue (the colorful sort that goes with bunting and streamers). 'Air balloon' is rarely used and is more suggestive of 'hot air balloon', which is certainly not what is meant by Luftballon. I've tried to put in a bit of explanation, to avoid having someone else who recognises Luft as the German for 'air' from messing it up again. But what I've written is clunky. If anyone can improve it please do. Klippa (talk) 09:17, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

You are correct. "Luft" in German does mean air. If it were 99 Red Balloons, it would be 99 Rot Balloons. The word luft reiterates that these are balloons filled with air. This is the way the Germans speak and write. If it were meant to be as others state, the song would have been titled 99 Balloons. There is nothing to say the balloons are red anywhere in the songs title. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.194.89.166 (talk) 01:05, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, the song relies on them not being air balloons at all, but helium-filled balloons. Otherwise, they would sink to the ground, never to trigger the erroneous East German air defenses that then initiate the nuclear holocaust. "Balloon" it is. ProhibitOnions ^(T) 20:46, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Disagree. The idea that air-filled balloons would sink to the ground is original research and also incorrect. Recreational balloons (as opposed to Research balloons) are indeed filled with air; this internal air is kept heated by powerful burners so that it is less dense than the outside air; this difference in density causes the buoyancy. Helium shouldn't even be mentioned, in my opinion. David Spector (talk) 13:59, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Off-topic chat

Extended content

Red? I remember being told that the "99 red balloons" were nuclear missiles from the Soviet Union. Nonsense? Well, kind of. You could interpret it that way. The story details a person letting 99 (red) balloons in the air and the radar of a seemingly-western nation reading them as warheads, and thus sending out a retaliation, resulting in global destruction. Folkor 06:38, 16 February 2006 (UTC) Actually, no. It's definitely not a Soviet attack scenario. The German version doesn't mention any colour and the English version only uses "red" because it's a one-syllable word that works in context in order to keep the metre: "neun'n-neun-zig Luft-bal-lons" and "nine-ty-nine red bal-loons" are close enough to make the song work with either. It's quite obviously aimed at the Western World, if anything. It also makes references to gas (i.e. oil), which has been a hot topic for pacifist groups (anti-capitalists, anti-globalists, you name it) for quite a while. I'm not sure whether it's against the US in particular, or just politicians in general, though -- I'd wager a little bit of both. Also, the correct translation is "99 balloons". "Luftballon" is just a more specific word than "Ballon" in German (the latter could just as well be a transport "hot air balloon", "Luftballon" is used almost exclusively to refer to the kind you use as party decoration). The meaning of the lyrics is pretty straightforward. It's a short tale about 99 balloons (red or not) being let go (as part of a peace demonstration, one might assume) and picked up by the army's RADAR and detected as missiles -- resulting in prompt "counter-measures" followed by global war because all the other generals think the country (which shot down the balloons) would be attacking them. The war lasts quite long (I think the German lyrics said "1000 years", but I'm not sure) and all that remains is a balloon, which she then lets go as well (possibly making it 100 balloons in total). No complex metaphors, no nothing. — Ashmodai (talk · contribs) 06:51, 19 June 2006 (UTC) I think maybe when NATO created it's early warning system they bestowed upon it the ability to tell the difference between balloons (hot or party, red or not) and nuclear missiles, just saying, yeah I know it's only a song, and a damn catchy one. Yakacm (talk) 19:42, 2 March 2016 (UTC) So, does that make the song actually somewhat pro-socialist and against America's constant prodding and testing the stress limits in the Cold War? Or is it just generally anti-nuke and against the idea that a bunch of politicians and generals have the power to blow the entire earth up as part of their intrigues and paranoid power struggles? 128.195.186.24 17:52, 9 October 2007 (UTC)Adieu No country is named, 99 ministers are mentioned, so not the US, unless it's referring to the Moral Majority. Um, it has nothing to do with any of that. Try following some of the links in the article. Jok2000 18:24, 9 October 2007 (UTC) It's actually 99 years of war in the German lyrics. :) —Mira 23:56, 19 June 2006 (UTC) Article talk pages are for discussing improvement to their associated articles, not for general discussion of the articles' topics. - SummerPhDv2.0 20:45, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Banned by Clear Channel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_deemed_inappropriate_by_Clear_Channel_following_the_September_11%2C_2001_attacks Add to this article for regularity, please.

deleted reference to VH1 broadcast.

i deleted the reference to the 1 hour VH1 broadcast of the 99 Red Baloons video.

the reason: it HASN'T HAPPENED YET!!!

• And I put in back in. Because it's scheduled to happen. But to make you happy I changed one word. I'll change it back on Monday. Lighten up. MK2 20:32, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

• You can't enter something as fact unless it's verifiable. When you come up with some way to verify the future, i'll send you my superball numbers. --Johnnydc 06:29, 25 March 2006 (UTC)Johnnydc

'99 Red Balloons' Video to Air for an Hour

• • Johnny, I do indeed have the power to predict the future. As you can now see, events came to pass as I foretold. The Amazing Randi is writing me a check for a million dollars as we speak because he was overwhelmed by my ability to predict what TV shows would be broadcast next week. My secret - the TV Guide. MK2 03:26, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

99 Dead Baboons

Is the parody by Tim Cavanaugh (not sure if it's Tim Cavanaugh) worth mentioning?: http://crydee.sai.msu.ru/public/lyrics/cs-uwp/m/misc.dementia/baboons I used to hear it on Dr. Demento's radio program. Esquizombi 12:38, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

• Just a note: It's Tim Cavanagh who did the parody. Cavanaugh with a "u" is a different guy with a similar name. Incidentally, I just started the article on the Tim you were referring to. Czj 20:15, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

questions

Who wrote the song? (Nena??) Who wrote the English lyrics? I think the article should give that.

I have a question about the English lyrics given at one of the external links. It says "Everyone's a Silverhero" - I always thought she was (at least intending) to say "superhero". Bubba73 (talk), 23:27, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

i added the information about the composer - and it is SUPER HERO--Kevin the1st 11:29, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

i've never posted anything on wikipedia before so forgive me if this isn't relevant - but the harry potter-themed rock band draco and the malfoys did a sort of parody of this song called "99 death eaters." don't know if someone would want to add that to the article.

Scrubs reference

Dear 200.140.183.82

This sentence makes grammatical sense: Both times, JD daydreams that dancing around in a room full of red balloons while this song is playing could diffuse a tense situation.

Please stop changing it to ones that don't make gramatical sense, for instance: Both times, JD daydreams that he is dancing around in a room full of red balloons while this song is playing could diffuse a tense situation.

Dreadpirate Roberts 07:57, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Neunundneunzig

Shouldn't the article somewhere mention the german spelling (+ ipa?) of Neunundneunzig? --° 18:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Covers

The article mentions that "the song has been covered by numerous bands" and lists NOFX among them. On what album did they cover this song? I can't find any reference to it in their official discography. Avitor 9:30, 2 November 2006 (CST)

I think someone must have confused NOFX with similar band Goldfinger, who did indeed cover 99 Red Balloons/99 Luftballons in their third album Stomping Ground. This version has been used in a fair amount of media, and so probably deserves most mention in this article. See [1] for more info (sorry, not quite sure how normal wiki linking works! --SeldooN (talk) 23:25, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Bjork did not cover this song. I have removed her name from the list of people covering it. This is not the first time this item has been removed and replaced. Dan4th 22:31, 14 June 2007 (UTC)Dan4th

I can't find anything other than Wikipedia that claims that Five Iron Frenzy has covered this song, and it's not in any discography of theirs. The claim was originally made on 16:36, March 10, 2007 by 69.160.218.1. I'm going to remove the reference unless someone can give some details on when and where Five Iron Frenzy covered the song. --Michael Anthony Abril 01:37, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

• I'm confused. Now there is no mention of any covers. The Goldfinger version originated on the first album listed on their Allmusic entry, a 2000 release titled "99 Red Balloons," then re-recorded for their 4 album "Stomping Ground," and apparently appeared in Not Another Teen Movie as well as Eurotrip. [2] Shouldn't there still be a section for covers. At least this one?

Medleystudios72 (talk) 15:36, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

There was no Covers section for a time, then apparently a new one was added with no sourcing establishing the significance of any of the covers. This information should not be added without third-party sourcing establishing that the covers are considered significant. The section had been tagged in April of last year for needing sources, and was ultimately removed in November. Doniago (talk) 15:42, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Well, seeing as I just provided a source, shouldn't the Goldfinger cover be re-added? Or is Allmusic not a up to wiki standards? Medleystudios72 (talk) 18:45, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

AFAIK Allmusic is reliable, though I'm not a sourcing guru. I'd say go ahead and add the information, with source of course. Doniago (talk) 18:59, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Done. Thanks. Medleystudios72 (talk) 17:30, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

"Nena never had another hit single outside of Germany,"

> "Nena never had another hit single outside of Germany,"

What about Austria and Switzerland? --° 08:22, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

>> And what about "Nur geträumt"?!?!

See Also Section

I removed the following section:

==See also==

• Norwegian rocket incident
• Iran Air Flight 655

There is only a tenuous connection between these incidents and the song.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories

It may be worth noting - under "Cultural References" or somesuch that GTA Vice City Stories has 99 red balloons to collect, instead of the usual packages. This is said to refer to the song. Martin Packer (talk) 14:29, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

it's also featured in the Watchmen movie [A] 03:55, 16 August 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ariel ALB (talk • contribs)

99 Lead decoy balloons?

I heard the English version of this song, as a kid, and thought she was singing something about "lead” decoy "balloons".

The small British nuclear deterrent, in 1983/4 before trident was bought from the Americans, was the Polaris. The Soviets had enough missiles to defend Moscow from a British Polaris nuclear attack. To overcome the Soviet missile shield around Moscow the British included 99 decoy balloons to be deployed with each of the Polaris war heads so that the Soviet missile shield would be overwhelmed, not knowing what to fire at. The balloons were weighted with lead so that they would fall through the atmosphere with the same characteristics as a nuclear war head.

In 1983, Reagan announced the star wars project to defend America from a nuclear missile strike so I thought the lyrics were mocking the star wars/star trek technology America intended to use by showing how easy any such technology would be overcome. The 99 balloons were falling as if to celebrate a coming party, but were actually the ironic prelude to the nuclear warhead explosion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.154.110.226 (talk) 03:20, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Deletion from the article

I have deleted this from the article because I don't believe it; I think it simply confuses this with a different song:

The debut of the German version on Musikladen (TV program) 21 August 1982 made Nena "one of the most successful pop stars Germany had ever seen" according to MTV.com.

The fact is that Nena appeared on Musikladen in August 1982 and sang Nur geträumt, which sold 40,000 copies the following day and became her first hit. This assertion I deleted asks us to believe she appeared again that same month and sang a song that all other sources say was released the following year, 1983. Michael Hardy (talk) 23:18, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation by outside world

"The host of American Top 40, Casey Kasem, was one of the few radio personalities who pronounced the song title correctly when it made the charts in the US in 1984."

Is this really relevant? It seems superflus and unimportant, the point about pronunciation was made well enough in the previous sentence and in any case; I would guess that technically this statement would need a citation. So I've removed it from the end of the third paragraph.--ASA-IRULE (talk) 00:25, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Potgutville?

Does anyone know where this reference to a Rolling Stones gig in "Potgutville" comes from? There's no such place. The German version of the Wiki page refers to the gig in question being in West Berlin. I'd change it back but I'm worried there's some reason the "Potgutville" reference has lasted so long!

External Links

Could any one please tell me why XLinkBot is deleting my link to the 99 luftballons on YouTube. Thanks (User:Edsteroo) —Preceding undated comment was added at 17:24, 12 November 2008 (UTC).

DDR leads to a disambiguation page.

could somebody please fix it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.101.131.36 (talk) 22:51, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Translation

Does anyone know why the opening line was translated as "Ninety-nine ..." and not "Nine and ninety ..."? Both are correct in English, and the second fits the rhythm better. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.112.29.76 (talk) 07:55, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

• Because "ninety-nine" is what people actually say in English and "nine and ninety" isn't? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.106.104.196 (talk) 10:01, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

WOO!! I added the 30 Rock reference!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.44.20.227 (talk) 06:23, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

99 Names of Allah

Wondering whether this has anything to do with the 99 Names of Allah... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.58.197.40 (talk) 02:15, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

you paranoid? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.23.103.113 (talk) 21:54, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Lyrics

In the German version there are no words describing that kids bought the balloons. I guess that is a failure, it could be also adults who bought them? Also in the English version I cannot find a note about children. Does someone has a link or something which references that kids bought the balloons? Thx! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.180.70.172 (talk) 21:04, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Confirmed, the German version nether mentions the buying or the releasing or kids. The balloons are just there. There is also no mention of a faulty radar ("[...] hielt man für UFOs aus dem All[...]" translates to "[...] were thought to be UFOs from outer space[...]") --2.201.191.90 (talk) 21:15, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

I read the article and noticed this also. No mention in the German lyrics of children or adults buying any balloons. No toy store either. I guess the next question is why hasn't it been changed?184.156.23.123 (talk) 05:16, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Why wasn't what changed? The English text is not a direct translation of the German one, that's well known and not that uncommon in general (for lyrical adaptions).--Kmhkmh (talk) 07:50, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

At the time I posed the previous question, the article made no distinction between the story of the German song and it's English counter part. The English lyrics were written by Kevin McAlea and begin the song with a slightly different story. This is what I was recommending should be changed to avoid confusion. Since the day I posed this question, the problem has been fixed and the information has been changed.184.156.23.123 (talk) 21:22, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

"Protest song"?

Really? This isn't what I would normally call a protest song. An general anti-war pop song, yes. -- J. Wong (talk) 22:36, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes i wouldn't call it a classical for sure nor did it have that perception in general afaik, but its text has this antiwar theme and it was released during a late peak of the cold war.--Kmhkmh (talk) 22:47, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

English Translation Writer?

I read on the following page - http://www.lostidols.com/files/n/nena.html that Canadian Singer/Songwriter Lisa Dal Bello was involved in the translation of the original song's lyrics, which makes sense because she later worked on re-writing Nena's album It's All in the Game in English. Rexgamer (talk) 18:32, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

Techno Remix?

The article mentions the 2002 and 2009 remixes but didn't Nena also do a techno remix at somepoint? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.36.164.104 (talk) 08:19, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Highest Charting German song in Billboard?

The article states that this is the highest charting German song in Billboard, but what about "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco? That went to #1. And if it means the artist is from Germany, there are number ones by German artists. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.172.29.68 (talk) 05:08, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was not moved --BDD (talk) 16:45, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

99 Luftballons → 99 Red Balloons – This article discusses both the original song "99 Luftballons" and the English variation released as "99 Red Balloons" (both of which were widely popular). The WP:TITLE is currently the German name. On the English Wikipedia, we have a tendency to want to WP:USEENGLISH. So should we move this article to "99 Red Balloons"? I don't see any previous discussion of this question on the Talk page. BarrelProof (talk) 20:14, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

• Retain Luftballons. Both the German and English versions were popular among Anglophones, with German and English titles used to distinguish them when distinction is needed, so WP:COMMONNAME applies to both. The exception in the last sentence of the intro of WP:USEENGLISH appears to apply, so I prefer using the original German title. Kilopi (talk) 00:11, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose English print sources mainly refer to the German original: Jeremy Gray Lonely Planet Germany 2007 Page 60 "Members of the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW, German New Wave) always sang in German – although Nena, its tame international mother-ship, successfully recorded her hit single 99 Luftballons in English, too." etc. In ictu oculi (talk) 03:05, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
• Retain Luftballons. In ictu oculi's source notes that the single is primarily known for its original German recording, the English recording was secondary. Augsburgbeliever (talk) 05:12, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support 99 Luftballons get 2200 google book hits[3] and "99 Red Balloons" (likely incorporating the covers as well gets 4500 hits[4]. So, putting my own personal nostalgia aside, I am going to have to support the move on not only a WP:USEENGLISH basis but WP:COMMONNAME as well. the title is clearly and widely used in English sources so there is no real reason to not use it.--Labattblueboy (talk) 05:27, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
• Google Books search for "99 Red Balloons" returns few relevant results for me; there are more, and higher quality sources for "99 Luftballons". Peter James (talk) 10:30, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
  • Can you post your search metric because that was not, seen in my provided links, the result in my search. I would be very curious to see.--Labattblueboy (talk) 04:23, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
    • For the titles alone (in quotes, 100 per page, English language only), 249 for the English version and 390 (excluding Wikipedia content) for the German version. The German title search lists a small number of books in German, or referring to the album, but most of the results after the first page for both searches are clearly unrelated. Additionally many books that should be found for both are only found when searching for the German title, and changing the search terms (with/without "Nena" and "99") produces inexplicably different results - usually slightly more for "Luftballons", but still inconclusive - and for some searches the quality seems about equal. I-f there's a reason to rename at all, number of search results isn't it. Both titles are commonly used in English and this is an example of Wikipedia:USEENGLISH#Divided usage in English-language sources - "leave the article name at the latest stable version" seems to apply, based on the reasons provided, and the article appears to have always been at this title. Peter James (talk) 12:38, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose for the reasons already elaborated. ╠╣uw [talk] 12:59, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
• Neutral -- the ngram shows no conclusive evidence either way (simply too few uses overall to be useful to us). [5] Good arguments on both sides here; I'm partial to WP:UE, but it seems English sources use the German name a lot as well, and it's in Latin script and somewhat decipherable in English. Red Slash 18:18, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
• Oppose as above. To add a small anekdote: As the song rose through Casey Kasem's American Top 40 he started playing the German side of the single as it became apparent that most of the clubs played the German and not the English side. #GoodOlDays Agathoclea (talk) 19:49, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Use of 99 Luftballoons in Coca-Cola Ad on TV

I attempted to add a statement in popular culture about 99 Luftballoons being used in a TV commercial for Coca-Cola that aired on American TV in March 2015 (the ad may be viewed by googling "99 Red Balloons Coke Ad"). My edit was removed, but I'm not sure why. I think the use of this song in a Coke commercial is an interesting fact that adds to the rich history of 99 Luftballoons. It also makes one wonder whether the creators of the Coke ad had ever really listened to the song's lyrics. I'm a relatively novice editor, so apologize if I've unwittingly done something wrong. JCNSmith (talk) 23:19, 22 March 2015 (UTC)JCNSmith (talk) 13:59, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

When adding pop culture references, third-party sources should be provided to establish that they are considered significant in some manner, in accordance with Wikipedia's policies against adding trivia. DonIago (talk) 16:04, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

track listing section?

hi. sorry if i'm missing it, but i've looked thru the article 3 times and don't see a track listing; i'm looking to know what was the b-side on the original single release. 63.142.146.194 (talk) 01:41, 15 April 2016 (UTC)