"99 Luftballons" is a song by the West German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons" (German: Neunundneunzig Rote Luftballons), with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena on the album 99 Luftballons in 1984 after widespread success of the original in Europe and Japan. The English version is not a direct translation of the German original and contains lyrics with a somewhat different meaning. In the US, the English-language ve