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....

What You Don't Know