What rhymes with Nena? Lena! So it’s fitting that the Eurovision Song Contest winner, almost 40 years after “99 Luftballons” was even a success in Japan, is also clearing the land of the rising sun with “Life Was A Beach”. That is why she is now traveling to Tokyo.

After her surprise success in Japan, Lena Meyer-Landrut is currently presenting herself to the media and fans in Tokyo. “It’s super exciting. I’m going to visit the record company here, do some interviews, do some TV shows and perform,” she said of her trip. “It’s super cool and a unique experience.”

The 2010 Eurovision Song Contest winner landed a hit in Japan this summer with her song “Life Was A Beach.” The song from her album “Only Love” is three years old and was never released as a single in Germany. A few months ago, however, three Japanese influencers posted a clip on the Tiktok platform in which they performed a choreography with their hands for the summer song – then the video went viral.

In the meantime, the music video has been clicked on Instagram and Tiktok more than 800 million times in Japan and has also landed in various charts. “I don’t expect much from it, except to have a super super great time at this moment,” says Lena.

On her Instagram page, she gave her around 4.8 million followers an insight into her “Tokio day 1”. She can be seen walking the streets of the city herself, but apparently also doing a manicure in a short clip. In addition, the 31-year-old captured some things that apparently impressed her – such as her egg noodle soup, a shop window with plush cats or a coin-operated machine from which you can draw manga characters.

Older songs are becoming viral hits over and over again via Tiktok. The platform even influences the musical events in such a way that sometimes songs are composed especially with a view to their use in the network. But even without Tiktok, German artists have managed to be successful in Japan in the past. One of the best-known examples of this is certainly Nena, whose world hit “99 Luftballons” also stormed the charts here in 1983.