You and I in a little toy shop,
buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Something's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by

99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
As 99 red balloons go by

99 Decision Street, 99 ministers meet
to worry, worry, super-scurry
Call out the troops now in a hurry,
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war!
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by

99 Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich fuer schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen: Krieg und wollten Macht
Mann, wer haette das gedacht
Dass es einmal soweit kommt
Wegen 99 ballons

(99 war ministers

Matches and cans of gas
Thought they were really smart
Thought they found some good prey
Yelled war and wanted power
Man who would have thought that
It would go so far
Because of 99 red balloons ) english translation

99 dreams I have had,
And every one, a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In the dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here it is, a red balloon
I think of you and let it go