Band : Tokio Hotel

Origin              : Germany Genres : Pop rock, Teen pop

Years active    : 2001–present

Labels             : Universal Music Germany, Cherrytree, Interscope (US)

Website           : www.tokiohotel.com

Members :

Bill Kaulitz

Bill Kaulitz (born 1 September 1989 in Leipzig, Germany is a German singer, songwriter, voice actor, designer and model. He is best known for his work from 2001 to the present as the lead singer of the band Tokio Hotel.

Tom Kaulitz

Tom Kaulitz was born on September 1, 1989 in Leipzig ten minutes before his identical twin brother, Bill. Since September 2007, Tom uses Gibson guitars and Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Heads with Mesa Boogie Rectifier 4x12 cabinets. He has stated his musical influences to be Aerosmith and German hip-hop such as Samy Deluxe. He modeled for Reebok in Germany. Kaulitz, alongside his identical twin brother, Bill, is an advocate for PETA in Germany. They participated in a photo shoot discouraging the use of animals for entertainment. He is currently with his brother, Bill Kaulitz, in Los Angeles, where they are working on producing another album.

Georg Listing

Georg (Moritz Hagen) 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 (Klaus Wolfgang) Schäfer was born on 8 September 1988 in his hometown of Magdeburg. He currently lives in Magdeburg and in the temporary home in Hamburg where the studio is. Gustav has been playing the drums since he was five. His musical influences include Metallica, Joe Cocker, and Rod Stewart.

Tokio Hotel is a pop rock band from Germany, founded 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 France, 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. They won an Award for Best World Stage Performance on 7 November 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid.

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. 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 is now one of the biggest modern acts from Germany and the biggest in 20 years.