Agnetha was the least confident in English, and now cannot speak it easily as she has not used it for years. But in the above clip you can see that even she was able to understand and answer a reasonably complex question "How many people are there in your country."

Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid are still on British tv every now and then and are perfectly fluent in English.

When a song is in a foriegn language, you don't really understand the words. A song you might hate because the lyrics are so dumb might actually appeal to you in a foreign language. The English version, 99 Red Balloons is pretty dumb, but when you hear it in German, you can imaging the lyrics being these really cool mysterious things.

Imma disagree about the lyrics being dumb.

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one they were gone
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, something's out there
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine decisions treat
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call out the troops now in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it, boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Neunundneunzig Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen: Krieg und wollten Macht
Mann, wer hätte das gedacht?
Daß es einmal so weit kommt
Wegen neunundneunzig Luftballons
Neunundneunzig Luftballons

Ninety-nine dreams I have had
And every one a red balloon
It's all over, and I'm standing pretty
In the dust that was a city
I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
Here it is, a red balloon
I think of you and let it go

That is a pretty good summation of how I felt about nuclear annihilation back then being just one mistake away. The Reagan bombing Russia sound check happened a little while later, it always felt closer than it was in those days. I thought Nena singing in German sounded sexy back then. Goldfinger's version is the best.

Totally agree. Awesome lyrics. Nothing dumb about that song at all.

I still get a shiver down my spine with the opening bars. There was something just so plaintive about her delivery.

I also fell in love with the German language when i heard the original version. It is still my favourite foreign language to speak and hear.

let's see if I can 'splain this from my point of view... ( as an A-merican )

1) 1983.. we were all kinda punk back then
2) Nina... she was cute
3) cute woman, singing foreign language = sexy
4) 'enuf said.



( just as a side note.. I've seen BBC shows.. news shows generally ) where the person being interviewed was speaking English* and they've subtitled his speech into english


*--speaking english.. usually either a Yorkshire or Cornish version of English......ayyy'up

just as a totally uninteresting side note.. I was just walking back from lunch and what came up on random rotation on my iPod ...

yep.. 99luftballoons.

:D

Ooooooooo! That's synchronicity!

Which also happes to be another 80's song....


I just blew my own mind....

Well I'll be boiled in oil and covered in feathers, I have been perpetuating that Abba rumor for years. I should know better! :blush:

Sorry Abba. Imma gonna correct that. Abba. Imma. Abba. Imma.

Oprah, Uma.

Uma, Oprah.

I knew you'd get it! :)

yebbut, when it's the only tune on there, the chances are kind of high....

I never knew the real meaning of the song, having misheard some of the lyrics.
I thought it was a whimsical little thing about a childish prank that got the Government all hot and bothered. I had no idea it was about actual destruction!

Talking about learning things phonetically, I played "Anything Goes" from the Temple of Doom to two Chinese colleagues when I worked in London. They giggled and seemed to enjoy it, but did not seem to get anything from it. They were most confused when I said it was supposed to be in Mandarin. Nononono they assured me, embarrassed. Nor any dialect they had ever heard. Perhaps it was Japanese?

Disappointed. I always meant to learn it one day. It would have been my party piece.

hey now !!!, there is absolutely no need to be like that!!


I have more songs on my iPod than I can count

( yes... 11 ) :p: