Nena (born Gabriele Susanne Kerner on March 24, 1960 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) is a singer an actress and the co-founder (with three others) 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", known in English as "99 Red Balloons" (though a direct translation from German would actually be "99 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.