Tokio Hotel

Tokio Hotel is a German pop rock band founded in Magdeburg, Germany in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing. The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there. After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. Schrei sold more than half a million copies worldwide and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album Zimmer 483 and their first English album Scream which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, Zimmer 483, spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, Scream, spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won in the US their first MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. In October 2008, they won four awards including Best International Artist and Song of the year at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica held in Mexico. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and also at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on 6 November 2008 and the Award for Best Group on 5 November 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award held in Berlin.

History

Founding
Tokio Hotel was founded by vocalist Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. 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. Under the name Devilish, the band soon began playing in talent shows and small concerts. After Bill Kaulitz's participation in a children's Star Search in 2003 at age thirteen (which he lost in the quarter-final), he was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. Devilish 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.[7] Soon after Sony BMG took them under contract, Hoffmann hired David Jost and Pat Benzner into the team of creators and authors, and had them give the teens instruction on songwriting and instrument playing; most of the songs of the first album were written by Hoffmann, Jost and Benzer (including the singles "Scream" and "Rescue me" which were completely written by them), only the single "Unendlichkeit" was written completely by Tokio Hotel themselves. However, shortly before release of their first album, Sony terminated their contract. In 2005, Universal Music Group took Tokio Hotel under contract and developed a marketing plan. The band has now become one of the biggest acts from Germany.
Schrei


Bill Kaulitz performing in Hessisch-Lichtenau, Germany in 2006.
Their first single, "Durch den Monsun" ("Through the Monsoon"), quickly rose in the charts, appearing on the German official Media Control single chart at #15 on 20 August 2005 and eventually reaching #1 on 26 August 2005; it also reached #1 on the Austrian singles chart. Their second single, "Schrei" ("Scream"), climbed to the #5 position in the German charts. These two songs were written by singer Bill Kaulitz together with their group of producers Peter Hoffmann, David Jost, Pat Benzer and Dave Roth. Their debut album, Schrei, was released on 19 September 2005, which the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry – Germany later awarded a platinum certification for selling over 200,000 copies. In 2006, a third and fourth single, "Rette mich" ("Rescue Me") and "Der letzte Tag" ("The Final Day"), were released; both reached #1 as well. "Der letzte Tag" contained a B-side called "Wir schließen uns ein", which was also accompanied by a music video.
Zimmer 483
The first single off their second album Zimmer 483 (Room 483), called "Übers Ende der Welt" (later re-released in English under the name "Ready, Set, Go!"), was released on 26 January 2007 and quickly reached #1 in Germany and Austria, and #2 in France. Zimmer 483 was released in Germany on 23 February 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album containing a DVD. The album's second single, "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on 7 April. 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, "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side"), was released on the 16 November. The single contains the B-side "1000 Meere" ("1000 Oceans"), for which a music video was also produced. On 28 April 2008 Tokio Hotel released their single "Heilig" but no music video for the single was released, because of the tight schedule they had.
Scream
Tokio Hotel's first English language album, Scream, was released on 4 June 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. "Monsoon", the English-language version of "Durch den Monsun", was the first single from the album. "Ready, Set, Go!" (the translation of "Übers Ende der Welt") was released as the album's second single and "Don't Jump" (the translation of "Spring nicht") as the third single. 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.
Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on 27 August 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.
Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on 1 November 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.
Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on 11 December 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. 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 25 March and in the US on 6 May.
1000 Hotels Tour
The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on 3 March 2008 in Brussels and continued to locations including The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Scandinavia, and was scheduled to finish on 9 April; however, during the concert in Marseille, France on 14 March, 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 canceled 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.
North American Tours and Humanoid
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. 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.
In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, Humanoid, which, according to their producer David Jost, is currently set for release on October 2, 2009. 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 with 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.
Band members



Leipzig

Halle

Magdeburg
Tokio Hotel Origins
Bill Kaulitz
Main article: Bill Kaulitz
Tom Kaulitz
Tom Kaulitz was born on September 1, 1989 in Leipzig ten minutes before his identical twin brother, Bill. His style of dress is baggy Hip-Hop clothes, with dreadlocks and large New Era hats, the only one of the band to do so. As of September 2007, Tom was using Gibson guitars and Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Heads with Mesa Boogie Rectifier 4x12 cabinets.[34] He has stated his musical influences to be Aerosmith[35] and German hip-hop such as Samy Deluxe.
Georg Listing
Georg Listing was born on 31 March 1987. His hometown is Halle. He began playing bass when he was thirteen-years-old, and, as of September 2007, uses a Sandberg bass. He has said that his playing style was heavily influenced by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers,and other musical influences include Die Ärzte and Oasis.
Gustav Schäfer
Gustav Schäfer was born on 8 September 1988 in his hometown of Magdeburg, and is a Virgo. He currently lives in Magdeburg and in the temporary home in Hamburg where the studio is. Gustav is 1,70 cm (5'7" ft) and weighs 68kg (150 lbs) and sports Dark Blonde hair and brown eyes. He has an older sister named Franzsiska Schäfer. His favorite subjects in school were Sports and Economics while he hated Math and Physics. His "motto" is Hauptsache alles geht schief. (Which means the same as: As long as everything goes wrong). Gustav is very a quiet and shy person. He prefers to stay in the background. He’s also very sensitive and can get moody and sulky really easily. He’s also very impatient. He’s always the first one to get up in the mornings and waits till the rest of the band drags themselves out of bed while he’s already made breakfast and gotten ready  Gustav has been playing the drums since he was five. His musical influences include Metallica, Joe Crocker, and Rod Stewart.
Discography

For more details on this topic, see Tokio Hotel discography.
Studio albums
Schrei (2005), Universal Music/Island
Schrei - so laut du kannst (2006), Universal Music/Island – Re-recording of Schrei
Zimmer 483 (2007), Universal Music/Island
Scream (2007), Universal Music/Island
Humanoid (2009), CherryTree Records, Interscope Records
Live albums
Schrei - Live (2006), Universal Music/Island[38]
Zimmer 483 – Live In Europe (2007), Universal Music/Island
"Untitled Live DVD" (20??)[39]
Awards

2005
Category Award Date
Best Newcomer Comet Awards (Germany) 6 October
Super Comet Comet Awards (Germany) 6 October
Best Newcomer Eins Live Krone 24 November
Best Pop National Act Bambi Awards 1 December
Best Single Golden Penguin (Austria) ...2005
Best Pop Golden Penguin (Austria) ...2005
Rock Band 2005 Golden Penguin (Austria) ...2005
2006
Category Award Date
Album of the year Golden Penguin (Austria) 8 February
Band of the year Golden Penguin (Austria) 8 February
Song of the year - ‘Der Letzte Tag’ Golden Penguin (Austria) 8 February
Best Newcomer Golden Penguin (Austria) 8 February
Ausverkaufte Tourhalle Sold-out-Award of Königpilsener Arena 11 March
Best Newcomer ECHO Awards (Germany) 12 March
Best Newcomer Steiger Awards 25 March
Pop National Radio Regenbogen (Germany) 31 March
SuperBand Rock - Golden Otto Bravo Otto 6 May
Music Award Bild OSGAR 22 May
Best Newcomer International Hungarian Popcorn Awards 26 May
Best Newcomer Hungarian Bravo Otto 24 June
Best International Band Hungarian Bravo Otto 24 June
Best Newcomer Band Popkomm Bavarian Music Lion 21 September
Best German Pop Band Goldene Stimmgabel 24 September
Best Selling German Artist World Music Awards 15 November
Best Pop National Act Bambi Awards 30 November
Best Live Act Eins Live Krone 7 December
Best Rock band MTV France
2007
Category Award Date
Single of the Year - Durch Den Monsun Golden Penguin
Best Selling German Act - Album Schrei European Border Breakers Award 21 January
European Border Breakers Award NRJ Awards 21 January
Rock Award BZ-Kulturpreis 23 January
Best Video National ECHO Awards (Germany) 25 March
SuperBand Rock - Golden otto Bravo Otto 28 April
Best Video Comet Awards (Germany) 3 May
Best Band Comet Awards (Germany) 3 May
Supercomet Comet Awards (Germany) 3 May
Best Band Jabra Music July 2007
Digital prize Festivalbar (Italy) 7 September
Most Successful Group Rock International Goldene Stimmgabel 22 September
Most Successful Popgroup International Goldene Stimmgabel Awards 3 October
Best Album TMF Awards (Belgium) 14 October
Best Video TMF Awards (Belgium) 14 October
Best New Artist TMF Awards (Belgium) 14 October
Best Pop TMF Awards (Belgium) 14 October
Best International Act MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) 1 November
Best band of the Year MTV Italy Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award 1 December
2008
Category Award Date
Band of the Year 2007 Golden Penguin (Austria) January
Best International Band Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden) 24 January
Best International Band NRJ Music Awards (France) 26 January
Best Music National Goldene Kamera (Germany) 6 February
Best Music Video Echo Awards (Germany) 15 February
Best International Artist Emma Gala Awards (Finland) 8 March
Best International Group Disney Channel Kids Award (Italy) 28 March
Best Concert Hitkrant (Netherlands) May 2008
Best Mood Song - Monsoon Hitkrant (Netherlands) May 2008
Song that Satys in your Head - Monsoon Hitkrant (Netherlands) May 2008
Superband Rock - Silver Otto Bravo Otto 3 May
Best Band MTV TRL Awards (Italy) 17 May
Best Number 1 of the Year with Monsoon MTV TRL Awards (Italy) 17 May
Best Band Comet Awards (Germany) 23 May
Best Video - An Deiner Seite Comet Awards (Germany) 23 May
Best Live Act Comet Awards (Germany) 23 May
Super Comet Comet Awards (Germany) 23 May
Best New Artist MTV VMA Music Awards (USA) 7 September
Fan Choice Best Entrance MTV VMA Music Awards (USA) 7 September
Best Male Artist International (Bill Kaulitz) TMF Awards[40] (Belgium) 11 October
Best Video International - Don't Jump TMF Awards[40] (Belgium) 11 October
Song of the Year MTV Latin America Awards 16 October
Best Fanclub-Venezuela MTV Latin America Awards 16 October
Best New Artist-International MTV Latin America Awards 16 October
Best Ringtone MTV Latin America Awards 16 October
Headliner MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) 6 November
Best Selling DVD: ZImmer 483 - Live in Europe Rekord (Russia) 2 December
2009
Category Award Date
SuperBand - Golden Otto Bravo Otto (Germany) 12 May
Best TRL Artist of the Year MTV TRL Awards (Italy) 16 May
Best Online Star Comet Awards (Germany) 29 May
Export Hit of Germany Bavarian Music Lion 17 September
International Award (2009) Audi Generation Award 18 October
Best Group [41] MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) 5 November
Best International Rock Band Telehit Awards (Mexico) 12 November
2010
Category Award Date
Best International Band NRJ Music Awards (France) 23 January
Band of the Year Golden Penguin (Austria) 29 January
Album of the Year Golden Penguin (Austria) 29 January
Band of the Year Bravoora Awards (Poland) 1 February
Best International Artist Emma Gala Awards (Finland) 4 February
Walk of Fame König-Pilsener Arena (Germany) 26 February
Best International Band Radio Regenbogen Awards (Germany) 19 March
Favorite Music Star Kids Choice Awards 2010 (Germany) 10 April
Source:wikipedia