"Do It For Denmark!" and Nena, "99 Luftballons"

I was going to write on submarines again today but got distracted. The lovely lass above in this clean youtube (sorry guys) is something that my Swedish and German commenters can agree on: 

Denmark is half-way between Sweden and Germany!! 

Background

I have it on good authority that Eurosclerotic means "some Danish sex Goddess enjoying a vein".

To that end not all Danish women are like Birgitte Nyborg, the Prime Minister on Borgen. Although Birgitte (below on right) is very nice and admittedly more my age - and she looks a lot better than a real forgotten ex-Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.. 

Some very intelligent women are supporting actresses in Borgen, for example Katrine Fønsmark played by a real Birgitte, that is Birgitte Hjort Sørensen (below at left). 

Confusing? Doesn't matter. They are both good-looking and great actresses, with a lot of heart.

And what is the "Do It For Denmark!" campaign? 

"Denmark faces a crisis. Our birthrate is at a 27 year low. At Spies we’re concerned. Fewer Danes mean fewer to support the ageing population - and tragically, fewer holidaying with us. Research shows that Danes have 46% more sex [think of that!] on city holidays and since more sex equals the chance of more kids, we are prescribing a romantic city holiday to save Denmark’s future." see http://www.spies.dk/do-it-for-denmark .

Above are Katrine and Birgitte (Borgen) looking lovely for viewers on a cold, cold, Canberra or Adelaide Winter's day :p .

As they say at the Tour de France - "But dry your eyes with a kangaroo".

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NENA

Gabriele Susanne Kerner was born in Germany on March 24, 1960. She is better known by her stage name Nena. She's not only a (German) singer but also an actress and comedian, who rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". 

In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons." Nena was also the name of her backing  band for the song. With the re-recording and subsequent release of some of her old songs, her career re-emerged in 2002. In 2007, she co-founded the school Neue Schule Hamburg - a real school with students and everything. I wish I went to a school with Nena as Headmistress.

The plot of the 99 (Luftballons-Red Balloons) song is:

A bag's worth of helium balloons are casually released by an anonymous civilian into the sky and are registered as missiles by a faulty East German early warning system; mistaken for an attack by NATO, it results in panic and eventually nuclear war.

"99 Red Balloons", the English version, adds a significant and poignant detail - that Nena (along with the presumed listener) released the fateful balloons.

I remember the German and the subsequent English versions in 1983-84 well when they came out (see below).

Nena sings 99 Luftballons - much prettier in the German version!
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Nena sings 99 Red Balloons.

You decide which is better :)

Pete