Nena feat. Nena, also known as 20 Jahre – Das Jubiläums-Album (20 Years – The Anniversary Album) is a studio album by German pop singer Nena. It contains new versions of her hits, many with her band also called Nena, some of them duets with other singers including Kim Wilde, Joachim Witt and Udo Lindenberg. The album was first released in 2002 with a red cover and reissued with a blue cover in 2003.[7] Both releases exist in either standard or limited edition, the latter being supplemented with a bonus CD of live tracks.[8] 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.
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 are 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 are also significantly reworked in some songs, for example "Leuchtturm" and the combination of the English lyrics with German lyrics for Kim Wilde's parts in "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime".
Chart performance
While Nena remained active and popular after the demise of 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.
The album's lead single, the new version of "99 Luftballons", was released three weeks before the album. Peaking at No.28 in Germany,[9] it failed to replicate the success of the original which was a No.1 hit, although it did give Nena her first Top 40 hit since 1989. It was not until the release of the second single, the new version of "Leuchtturm", that Nena could repeat the success she had in the 1980s. The only unsuccessful single from the album was "Nur geträumt", which only peaked at No.79.[10]
Having been absent from the German Top 40 singles charts for 13 years, three of the tracks from this album made the Top 10. The album itself peaked at No.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.[11] (See :de:Nena/Diskografie § Studioalben).
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. By 2010 Nena's live performances of tracks from the album had all reverted to their original versions, with the exception of "Leuchtturm" (which is a special case, since it is performed as a combination of the original version and the 2002 version, the 2002 version being played after the second chorus).[12]
