Haunting Talent - Tokio Hotel and Bill Kaulitz

[Jane]

Who said an old dog can't learn new tricks? I discovered tonight an amazing band from Germany - The lead singer is Bill Kaulitz and only 19 and writes amazing songs... I added alot of their songs to my page for you to enjoy. So - enjoy Tokio Hotel... 4 boys from Germany with alot of talent....

Tokio Hotel is a German band founded in Magdeburg, Germany in 2001 by vocalist Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing. The four met in 2001 [when they were 11] 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. The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released two 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 terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Island Records 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 their first MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on 6 November 2008.

The band has now become one of the biggest acts from Germany. Bill was immortalized in wax at the Madame Tussauds museum in Berlin. His wax statue was unveiled on September 30, 2008. At 19 years old, Bill is now the youngest person to be duplicated by the Madame Tussauds museum in Berlin.

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 between the North American tours, the band have been returning to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album which, according to their manager David Jost, is currently set for release in May or June 2009

Tokio Hotel's genre definition is a matter of a debate. Frankfurter Rundschau article describes their music as "Straightforward pop-rock with catchy melodies and a well-calculated mix of "stolen" Metallica riffs and romantic ballad elements." "Lyrics laced with "emo" angst, wrapped in a flamboyant pop-rock package", says an ABC reviewer, mentioning that style "range from catchy pop anthems... to appealing rock ballads" from song to song. Tokio Hotel deliver "both yowling rockers and sentimental ballads", follows Rolling Stone.

Bill Kaulitz was born on September 1, 1989 in Leipzig, East Germany. He was born ten minutes after his identical twin brother, Tom, to Simone Kaulitz, a freelance tailor, and Jörg Kaulitz. His parents divorced when he was seven, and his mother remarried Gordon Trümper, a guitarist from the German rock band Fatun. His stepfather inspired Bill and his brother to begin their music careers, and they began writing song lyrics. Bill has stated that his biggest musical influence is German pop artist Nena. He voiced the role of Arthur in the German version of the film, Arthur and the Minimoys. [Arthur and the Invisibles]

His androgynous look, young age and edgy hairstyle has reached icon status among many teenage girls. In August 2008, Bill Kaulitz was chosen as the most attractive singer on stage by the readers of the Spanish magazine ¡Hola!. In December 2008, Bill Kaulitz was named "Man of the Year #6" by MTV News.

He has also gained the amusing title of being The Best Man who looks good in eyeshadow besides Jack Sparrow. [per the website The Best]

below find some links to their music videos on You Tube - they do not allow embedding so I can also post the link.

link to an excellent video and song - Don't Jump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXH1bbEa5fI

link to my favorite song Monsoon - sorry the video is not the best quality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3aIBrGfVw0

something amazing to watch is their original video in German and how young they were -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7eOcW9vXlI


the videos on their myspace are much better
http://www.myspace.com/tokiohotel

They are unusual but very good - hope you enjoy them as much as me......

blessings
jane

[Misguidedsoul]

Hi Jane, cool band. Have you heard of the band She Wants Revenge? try the song
Written In Blood

[Willow]

Hi Jane, Thanks for sharing.. I like Scream the best!!

[Joe]

Cool band, Jane.
I like the songs Scream & Monsoon best.
Thanks for the heads up!