She was born Gabriele Susanne Kerner in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The band Nena was formed with Nena (singer), Rolf Brendel (drums), Carlo Karges (guitar), Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen (keyboard) and Jürgen Dehmel (bass) in Berlin in 1981. Their first hit single, "Nur geträumt", came in 1982 after appearing on the German television program Musikladen.
The following year they released their self-titled first album, which contained the singles "99 Luftballons" and "Leuchtturm". "99 Luftballons" was a number 1 hit in many countries and an English version of the song, "99 Red Balloons", was recorded, and retains some measure of cultural influence, being referred to in current music - the Guster track Amsterdam. Nena then released ? (Fragezeichen) in 1984, Feuer und Flamme in 1985, Eisbrecher in 1986.
After that Nena released solo albums, including some children's albums, and gave birth to five children. In 2003, she returned to performing publicly.