Nena‘s 1984 hit is at the center of a fresh debate over Billboard’s recent ranking of the best No. 2 songs in Hot 100 history, and this time, it’s about who got left off the list.
Billboard published a staff-curated list of the 100 best songs to ever peak at No. 2 without reaching No. 1. The list sparked enough reaction that Billboard ran a follow-up mailbag column featuring reader pushback, including a submission from reader Pablo Nelson arguing that several deserving songs were snubbed. Nelson pointed to Nena’s German-language hit “99 Luftballons” as one of the clearest omissions, noting the song “peaked at #2” and calling out the surprising list without it.
The debate centers on a song that’s more unusual than its pop chart success might suggest. “99 Luftballons” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984, kept out of the top spot by Van Halen’s “Jump.” It remains one of the rare non-English-language songs to ever crack the American Top 10, let alone come one spot short of No. 1.
The song’s lyrics take an unexpectedly playful turn for a track rooted in Cold War anxiety, tossing in a reference to Captain Kirk as balloons drifting near the Berlin Wall are mistaken for enemy aircraft, triggering a fictional military response. The story, born from something the band’s guitarist actually witnessed at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin, became one of the most distinctive protest songs of the decade.
While the English-language version, “99 Red Balloons,” topped the UK charts, it was the original German recording that became the hit stateside, making Nena a rare case of an artist finding U.S. success in her native language.
Nearly 40 years later, fans and readers are still making the case for just how great “99 Luftballons” is.
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