''Wunder gescheh'n'' (German for "Miracles Happen") is the first solo album by German pop singer
Nena
Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena (band), Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". I ...
. It was released in November 1989, two years after the demise of
her band in fall 1987. The title track, "Du bist überall" and "Im Rausch der Liebe" were released as singles and had moderate success.
Theme
The album was written (several tracks by Nena herself) and recorded at a time when she was pregnant with twins and shortly after the death of her first child at the age of 11 months.
Many of the songs focus on Nena's feelings towards her lost son and her hopes and fears concerning her unborn children. One of them, "Weisses Schiff", is often introduced by Nena at her live concerts as one of her favourite songs. The song describes the thoughts of a person watching a ship of young and old souls sailing into the distance, expressing the hope that when her time comes, she'll be welcomed aboard.
Title track
Nena wrote "Wunder gescheh'n" ("Miracles Happen") whilst staying in hospital caring for her severely disabled first son. In her 2005 memoirs Nena describes the "miracle" she witnessed when a hospital physiotherapist first attended to him when he was several months old. "Obviously this cleared a lot up inside him," she wrote, "because very suddenly he began to moan pleasantly and then a longer extended deep sigh came out of him. For a "normal" mother and a "normal" child nothing could be more usual but this brought tears to my eyes and I couldn't believe it. I fell on my knees and thanked God for this moment because I was hearing the voice of my baby for the first time."
Release of the album happened to be just a few days before the fall of the
Berlin Wall (9 November 1989), and Nena, still pregnant at the time, performed the album's title track at the hastily convened ''
Konzert für Berlin'' (12 November 1989) marking this historic event.
Ever since, the song and its meaning are associated with that context.
Since then Nena has constantly reworked the song, starting with a "country" version being performed during her 1993 ''
Bongo Girl
''Bongo Girl'' is a studio album of German pop singer Nena, released by Epic Records on 1992. Singles from this album are "Manchmal ist ein Tag ein ganzes Leben", "Conversation" and "Ohne Ende".Singles from ''Bongo Girl'' at ''Nena.de''. Retrie ...
'' tour. Most significantly, two different versions (one "with friends" becoming a Top 10 hit in Germany) came out on the triple platinum album ''
Nena feat. Nena'' (2002) which rekindled her career in the German-speaking countries. Another heavier version of the track appeared in the DVD ''
Made in Germany Live
''Made In Germany Live'' is a two-CD live album by German pop singer Nena, released on 17 September 2010. It contains her live performance at Berlin on 24 April 2010, with bonus tracks from concert dates in 2009 and 2010 on the special edition of ...
'' (2010) and further live versions on the "De luxe bonus edition" of her album ''
Du bist gut'' (2012) and on ''
Live at SO36
''Live at SO36'' is the 6th live album of the German pop singer Nena. It comprises the recording of most of her concert performed at the SO36 club in Berlin on 4 March 2015 and was released exactly one year later on 4 March 2016.
Background
Ne ...
'' (2016). In January 2016 Nena and her son Sakias accompanied the "Musical Voices S.I.E.G." choir to perform a choral arrangement of the song in a church in
Sankt Augustin
Sankt Augustin ( Ripuarian: ''Sank Aujustin'') is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is named after the patron saint of the Divine Word Missionaries, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430). The Missionaries e ...
.
The song is a permanent feature and highlight of Nena's concerts, the audience usually being required to sing the third rendition of the chorus unaccompanied.
Track listing
Charts
References
External links
''Wunder gescheh'n''at the official Nena website
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{{Authority control
1989 debut albums
Nena albums
Albums produced by Gareth Jones (music producer)
CBS Records albums
German-language albums