Nena feat. Nena

Nena feat. Nena
Studio album by Nena
Released	28 October 2002 (Red) 3 March 2003 (Blue)
Genre	Pop rock, pop
Length	56:11 (Red) 1:29:07 (Blue)

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Allmusic	[1]

Nena feat. Nena is the twelfth studio album of German pop singer Nena. Also called 20 Jahre Nena (20 Years of Nena) and 20 Jahre—Das Jubiläums-Album (20 Years—The Anniversary Album), it contains new versions of her hits, some of them duets with other singers, including Kim Wilde on "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime", Joachim Witt on "Wunder gescheh'n" (Miracles Happen), and Udo Lindenberg on "Jetzt bist du weg" (Now You're Gone). The album was first released with a red cover in 2002. In 2003 it was reissued with a blue cover and a bonus CD of live tracks. The songs on the bonus CD are also reworked, suggesting that Nena may have planned to update more of her back-catalogue, although there have been no further releases in this vein.

While Nena the singer remained active and popular after the demise of Nena the band in 1987, releasing several albums for adults and children, she was unable to recapture the chart success she enjoyed in the early-1980s. Nena feat. Nena changed that. It was wildly successful in her native Germany, peaking at No. 2 to become her first top-ten album there since Feuer und Flamme in 1985. It also reached No. 1 in Austria and No. 5 in Switzerland, and remained in the charts for over a year in all three countries. Nena feat. Nena has sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums by a German artist in the new millennium. It reestablished Nena as a national icon and international star.

Background

Throughout her solo career, Nena had experimented with various styles, culminating in the 2001 technopop Chokmah album which immediately preceded Nena feat. Nena. These had not matched the commercial success of the Nena band albums. Perhaps less imaginatively, Nena therefore chose to mark the 20th anniversary of the band's debut by recording the Nena feat. Nena album which, as its title implies, comprises updated versions of tracks from Nena’s back catalogue with no new material.

12 of the 14 songs on the initial “red cover” version of the album were originally written and released in the 1980s and, with the other two coming from the 2001 Chokmah, Nena’s four solo albums in the 1990s were completely unrepresented. The modifications for Nena feat Nena range from applying different tunes (e.g. the versions of "99 Luftballons" and "Nur geträumt" to those with different arrangements (often performed jointly with guest vocalists) such as "Wunder gescheh'n" and "Jetzt bist du weg". The lyrics were also significantly reworked in some songs, for example "Leuchtturm" and most obviously the English sections for Kim Wilde’s parts in "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime".

Singles and chart performance

The following songs were released as singles:

• "99 Luftballons 2002"
• "Wunder gescheh'n" (Red Nose Version)
• "Nur geträumt 2002"
• "Leuchtturm 2002"
• "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime 2002"

Having been absent from the German Top 40 singles charts for 13 years, three of these tracks made the top 10. The album itself peaked at #2, was in the charts for over a year (55 weeks) and remains Nena’s biggest selling album ever, achieving triple platinum status in Germany.^[2] Nena/Diskografie

DVD release

A double DVD called Nena feat. Nena Live was released in 2003. It contained Nena's twentieth anniversary show recorded on 11 October 2002 at Frankfurt am Main. The show ran for nearly three hours, during which Nena invited many friends and fellow musicians to sing along with her: Joachim Witt, Udo Lindenberg, Kim Wilde, Westbam, Markus, Hartmut Engler, Rosenstolz, Mike Tait, Howard Jones, and TokTok, as well as the surviving members of Nena band: Rolf Brendel, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and Jürgen Dehmel. The second DVD contains footage of Nena and her band on tour, interviews, and three music videos: "99 Luftballons" (2002 Version), "Wunder gescheh'n" (Red Nose Version), and "Leuchtturm" (2002 Version).

Aftermath

Although Nena feat. Nena resurrected its creator’s career, it remained the case that all Nena’s best-selling material had been originally written in the 1980s, virtually all of it by 1986, prior to Nena going solo. It was not until the follow-up studio album in 2005, Willst du mit mir gehn, that Nena finally broke the 1980s’ monopoly of her greatest hits and concert favourites. Perhaps ironically, given the huge commercial success of Nena feat Nena, by 2010 Nena’s live performances of tracks from the album had all reverted to their original versions, with the sole exception of "Leuchtturm".^[3]

Track listings

2002 Red cover version

1. 99 Luftballons 2002 – 5:02
2. Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime 2002 (featuring Kim Wilde) – 4:03
3. Nur geträumt 2002 – 2:55
4. Leuchtturm 2002 – 4:14
5. ? (Fragezeichen) 2002 – 4:08
6. Wunder gescheh'n 2002 (featuring Joachim Witt) – 3:50
7. Jetzt bist du weg 2002 (featuring Udo Lindenberg) – 4:48
8. Lass mich dein Pirat sein 2002 – 3:29
9. Es regnet 2002 – 4:42
10. Lichtarbeiter 2002 – 4:54
11. Vollmond 2002 – 2:42
12. Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann 2002 – 4:02
13. Ich häng' immer noch an dir 2002 (featuring TokTok) – 3:41
14. Carpe diem (Söhne Mannheims Ragga Mix Radio Edit) (Bonus Track) – 3:34

2003 Blue cover version

The 2003 edition of the album has a blue tinted cover

CD1

1. 99 Luftballons 2002 – 5:05
2. Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime 2002 (featuring Kim Wilde) – 4:03
3. Nur geträumt 2002 – 2:55
4. Leuchtturm 2002 – 4:14
5. ? (Fragezeichen) 2002 – 4:08
6. Wunder gescheh'n 2002 (featuring Joachim Witt) – 3:50
7. Jetzt bist du weg 2002 (featuring Udo Lindenberg) – 4:48
8. Lass mich dein Pirat sein 2002 – 3:29
9. Es regnet 2002 – 4:42
10. Lichtarbeiter 2002 – 4:54
11. Vollmond 2002 – 2:42
12. Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann 2002 – 4:02
13. Ich häng' immer noch an dir 2002 (featuring TokTok) – 3:41
14. Wunder gescheh'n 2003 (featuring Nena and Friends) (Red Nose Version) (Bonus Track) – 4:40

CD2

1. Haus der drei Sonnen (Live) – 4:29
2. Tanz auf dem Vulkan (Live) – 3:37
3. Dafür ist das Leben zu kurz (Live) – 5:49
4. Du kennst die Liebe nicht (Live) – 5:48
5. 99 Luftballons (Live) – 4:48
6. Carpe diem (Live) – 7:26

DVD

DVD 1

1. Haus der drei Sonnen
2. Satellitenstadt
3. Tanz auf dem Vulkan
4. Oldschool Baby (featuring Westbam)
5. Carpe Diem
6. Wunder gescheh'n 2002 (featuring Joachim Witt)
7. Kleine Taschenlampe brenn (featuring Markus)
8. Lichtarbeiter 2002
9. Silbermond
10. Es regnet 2002
11. Lass mich dein Pirat sein 2002 (featuring Hartmut Engler)
12. Jetzt bist du weg 2002 (featuring Udo Lindenberg)
13. Dafür ist das Leben zu kurz
14. ? (Fragezeichen) 2002
15. Du kennst die Liebe nicht (featuring Rosenstolz)
16. What Is Love? (featuring Howard Jones)
17. Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime (featuring Kim Wilde)
18. Leuchtturm (Old Version) (featuring Rolf Brendel, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and Jürgen Dehmel)
19. Rette Mich
20. Ganz Oben
21. Nur Geträumt 2002

DVD 2

1. 99 Luftballons 2002
2. 99 Luftballons
3. Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann
4. Vollmond 2002
5. Manchmal ist ein Tag ein ganzes Leben
6. Ich umarm die ganze Welt
7. Ruby Tuesday (featuring Mike Tait)
8. No Expectations
9. Zusammen
10. Der Anfang vom Ende
11. Bang Bang (featuring TokTok)
12. ? (Fragezeichen) 2002
13. Credits and Outro

References