They are a German rock band, sometimes referred to as a German emo rock band. The band was formed in 2001 by identical twin brothers Bill and Tom Kaulitz, but with a different name. They started out as "Devilish", but later changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels. The members of the band are: Bill Kaulitz (LEAD SINGER), Tom Kaulitz (GUITARIST), Georg Listing (BASS PLAYER), and Gustav Schafer (DRUMMER).
The four met in 2001 after a live show in a Magdeburg club, where Listing and Schäfer, who knew each other from music school, watched from the audience while Bill and Tom Kaulitz played on the stage. Once they formed their band "Devilish", they began playing in talent shows and small concerts. Then, in 2003, Bill competed in the children's Star Search at the age of 13, but he lost in the quarter final. But, it was because of Star Search that he was discover by Peter Hoffman. That is when they changed their name to "Tokio Hotel". Soon after, SONY BMG took them under contract, then Hoffman hired David Jost and Pat Benzner into the team of creators and authors, and he had them give the teens some instructions on songwriting and instrument playing. In fact, most of the songs from their first album, "Shrei" ("Scream" in German) were written by Hoffman, Jost, and Benzner. Only the single "Unendlichkeit" was written soley by Tokio Hotel themselves. However, shortly before their first album was to be released, SONY terminated their contract. In 2005, UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP signed Tokio Hotel and developed a marketing plan. The band has now become one of the biggest music acts from Germany.
The first single from "Shrei" was "Durch Den Monsun" (Through The Monsoon), and it quickly rose to the top of the charts. appearing on the German official Media Control single chart at #15 on August 20th 2005, and eventually reaching #1 on August 26th 2005; it also reached #1 on the Austrian singles chart. Their second single, "Shrei" climbed its way to the #5 position on the German music charts. These two songs were written by Bill Kaulitz, along with the group of producers Peter Hoffman, David Jost, Pat Benzner and Dave Roth. Their debut album, "Shrei" was released on September 19th, 2005, which the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry – Germany later awarded a platinum certification for selling over 200,000 copies. Tokio Hotel was quickly becoming a well known (and well loved) band. In 2006, they released a third and fourth single, "Rette Mich" (Rescue Me) and "Der Letzte Tag" (The Final Day), which both climbed their way to the other side of down, reaching the #1 spot. Tokio Hotel had girls in hysterics with their awesome music, and good looks. Though the lead singer, Bill, is very androgynous, most fan-girls find him to be very hot and irresistible. I myself am included in that list :) Bill is very rarely caught without his make-up on, but when he is, that is when I find him to be the hottest.
Their second album, "Zimmer 483" (Room 483) was released in Germany on February 23rd, 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album which included a DVD. The band said it was called Zimmer 483 because they were staying in a hotel in room 483, and they really liked that hotel, so they decided that that should be the title of the album. The first single off the album was titled "Ubers Ende Der Welt" (which was later released in english as "Ready Set Go") was released on January 26th, 2007, and, as you would expect, it quickly reached #1 in Germany and Austria, and #2 in France. The album's second single "Spring Nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on April 7th. The tour accompanying the release of the album, The Zimmer 483 Tour, was scheduled to start in March 2007, but was delayed by two weeks because the band members wished to have a different stage design. A third single was released on November 16th, 2005 titled "An Deiner Seite (Ich Bin Da)" ("By Your Side"), and I have to say, that is a very great song. I really enjoy listening to it. On April 28th, 2008 Tokio Hotel released their single "Heilig" ("Sacred" or "Holy") but no music video for the single was released, because of the tight schedule they had. I don't much care for Heilig, it always makes me wanna cry when I hear it. Even though I couldn't understand a word they were singing when I first heard their German albums, I still enjoyed the heck out of them!
After having done two German albums, the band decided to release their third album in English. Their first English-language album titled "Scream" was released on June 4th, 2007 throughout Europe. In Germany, the album was released as Room 483 in order to emphasize the continuity with their last German album "Zimmer 483". "Scream" contains English versions of a selection of songs from their German-language albums Schrei and Zimmer 483. The first single from the album was "Monsoon" the English version of "Durch Den Monsun". The album's second single was "Ready Set Go" (the translation of Ubers Ende DerWelt"), and the third was "Don't Jump" (the translation on "Spring Nicht"). I think of those three songs, "Ready Set Go would have to be my favorite. That song is epic. A video for "Scream", the English-language version of their 2005 hit "Schrei", was also recorded, and was released to the iTunes Store in early March 2008. I love that video, too. But it is a little weird. Anyway, Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on June 19th, 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on August 27th 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.
Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on November 1st, 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. Their performance of "Monsoon" at the event was awesome possum. The band released their first US single in late 2007, simply called "Tokio Hotel". The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. And, before Tokio Hotel, I would have never even thought about stepping into a Hot Topic store, but now every time I go to the mall, I make sure I stop in HT and buy something Tokio Hotel! Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on December 11th, 2007, two days after my birthday! In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates starting in Canada and finishing up in New York. After appearing and performing live on MuchMusic while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on April 8. "Scream" was released in Canada on March 25th and in the US on May 6th.
The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on March 3rd, 2008 in Brussels and continued to locations including The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Scandinavia, and was scheduled to finish on April 9th; however, during the concert in Marseille France on March 14th, Bill started to experience vocal problems He let the audience sing more frequently than normal and instead of the original 21 songs that were on the set list, they only played 16 songs. Bill apologized, in German, for his bad singing and explained that he was sick. Two days later, the band cancelled the Lisbon, Portugal concert minutes before it was supposed to commence. The rest of the "1000 Hotels" Tour and a scheduled North American Tour were cancelled following an announcement in Bild by the band's manager that Bill Kaulitz had to undergo surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords. Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without vacation. He had to undergo Larynx surgery on March 30 to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords. The cyst was the result of a throat infection that went untreated. Following his surgery, Bill was unable to speak for twelve days, and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation. If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged. Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008 and after that they embarked on a 2nd part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour adding many Open Air concerts and wrapping up the tour on July 13 in Werchter, Belgium.
Tokio Hotel embarked on a second tour of North America in August 2008. The band's music video for "Ready Set Go!" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards where they also won the award for Best New Artist. They returned to North America again in October 2008 for a month long tour of concerts and record store signings, but they never came close enough to my area for me to see them :( In December 2008, a behind-the scenes DVD called "Tokio Hotel TV --- Caught On Camera" was released. It contains footage from Tokio Hotel TV and backstage feature stories of the previous year on disc one entitled "History – The very best of Tokio Hotel TV!". A deluxe edition contains a second disc entitled "Future – The road to the new Album!" which features footage of the band on promotion tours and preparing for their third studio album. I was so happy to find that DVD in my Christmas stocking that year :) In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, "Humanoid" which, was released on October 2 in Germany & October 6, 2009 in the U.S This is despite earlier statements predicting a March/April 2009 release or a May/June 2009 release The album was recorded in both German and English, and both versions were released simultaneously worldwide. On August 10, it was announced on MTV news that the first German single would be "Automatisch" and its English counterpart, "Automatic", would also be released as a first single in the United States. On August 20, MTV Buzzworthy released a video which previewed "Automatic" and Cherrytree Records announced that the English version of the song would be released in the US on September 22. Nevertheless, the video for the single was released on September 3.
On November 2, it was announced on Tom's Blog that the second English single would be "World Behind My Wall" and its German counterpart, "Lass uns laufen", would be the second German single. The music videos for both versions were released on December 14 and December 15.
On June 24, 2010 the live music video for their single, "Dark Side of the Sun" was released on the band website. On July 20, 2010 they released their second live album Humanoid City Live from Milan, Italy.
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