10 things you didn't know about Nena

Nena met Udo Lindenberg at a check-in counter at Berlin's Tegel airport in the 80s – and romance blossomed on the flight. "From the first moment he was sweet, charming and funny," she said in an interview in 2016. They managed to keep the relationship, which lasted one year, a secret until 2002.

If that's not showbiz, we don't know what is. Nena once told German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel that she really enjoys vacuuming, because you get immediate results. She even used to drop crumbs on the floor as an excuse to get the vacuum cleaner out. Her two hairy dogs give her plenty of opportunity to indulge in this unusual hobby.

In 2002, Nena took to the stage in the role of Paramour in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Everyman" in Zurich. But that wasn't her first foray into acting; she also appeared alongside Markus Mörl in the 1983 film "Hangin' Out" (in German "Gib Gas – Ich will Spaß"). Critics were not impressed, but the film was a box-office success in Germany and was later dubbed in English for a US audience.

Nena revealed her hidden talent in 2016 on the reality TV show "Sing meinen Song" (sing my song) in which well-known singers do cover versions of each other's hits. Her rendition of German rapper Samy Deluxe's "Fantasie" brought Deluxe to his knees, quite literally. It took her five months to perfect the cover.

Anyone who has been to a Nena concert knows she is brimming with energy, as this picture from her performance at a Bundesliga game in 2010 illustrates. And she keeps this energy up off-stage, too – she goes running for an hour every morning.

That's right: jogging AND meditation, all before many of us have made it out of bed. Whenever possible, Nena meditates for an hour, starting at 5am. "It helps me find the right vibrations to calm down my whole system," she told German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.

Nena has a big family – at least by German standards. The pop icon has had five children, although her first son died aged just 11 months in 1988. In 1990 twins Sakias and Larissa were born, followed by sons Samuel Vincent and Simeon Joel in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Now age 58, Nena has three grandchildren.

Understandably, the grief of losing her first-born had a lasting impact on Nena. Just this year she spoke about the painful experience and how it forced her to really deal with death for the first time. She said it is "hard and sad" that people don't talk about this topic, "even though we all know that death is a part of life."

As the mother of four school-age children, Nena was not satisfied with the German education system. So, in 2007, she co-founded the "Neue Schule Hamburg," or New School Hamburg. The democratic system, based on the Sudbury model from the United States, gives children responsibility for their own education.

In the early 80s, German photographer Jim Rakete, perhaps best-known for his work with singer Nina Hagen, took Nena on as his secretary. Before long, the secretary became a singer, and Rakete became her manager. He was on board for her breakthrough singles "Nur geträumt" and "99 Luftballons" – the English version of which ("99 Red Balloons") would of course go on to become an international hit.