Nena (born Gabriele Susanne Kerner on March 24, 1960 in Breckerfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) is a singer and actress and the founder of the Neue Schule Hamburg, a school following the Sudbury model. She rose to international fame in 1984 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons" (German for "99 Balloons", but the English version of the song is called "99 Red Balloons"). "Nena" was also the name of the band with whom she released the song. With the re-recording and subsequent release of some of her old tracks, her career saw a second wind in 2002.

Nena was born Gabriele Susanne Kerner in Hagen, Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia), Germany. She acquired her nickname “Nena”, which means “sweetheart” in spanish, at the age of 3 during a vacation to Spain. Her first band was called The Stripes. They had a very minor hit with the song “Ecstasy,” but never managed to achieve broad success. The band Nena was formed with Nena (singer), Rolf Brendel (drums), Carlo Karges (guitar), Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen (keyboard) and Jürgen