The latest teen sensations to hit
Europe, the German band Tokio Hotel is now reaching into the American market a well. The band was formed in 2001 in Magdeburg with then twelve-year old twins-- Bill (vocals) and Tom Kaulitz (guitar), who soon recruited bassist Gustav Schäfer and drummer Georg Listing to round out the lineup. They originally recorded under the name Devilish, but changed their moniker in 2003 to Tokio Hotel ("Tokio", the German language spelling of the city Tokyo, Japan, which they love, and "
Hotel", due to their constant touring and sleeping in hot
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els) at the same time they received a recording contract from Universal. In August 2005 Tokio Hotel released their debut single, "Durch den Monsun." Teenage girls quickly fell in love with the band and by the end of the month the single topped the German pop chart and its Austrian counterpart. The follow-ups "
Rette Mich" and "Der Letzte Tag" also hit number one, although the former appeared in a re-recorded version dramatically different from its LP version thanks to Kaulitz's post-pubescent vocal changes. Schrei, the album that followed, sold more than half a million copies worldwide
In 2007, the quartet 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 European 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 countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy. Their first live album, Zimmer 483 - Live In Europe, was released near the end of 2007. However, while still struggling for success in most English-speaking countries, the band has released an English language version of Ready, Set, Go! in the UK, and are currently enjoying exposure in
Canada and the United States with the release their first U.S. single, simply entitled "Tokio Hotel.” The single contained tracks previously released elsewhere in the world, "
Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores .It appears the sky’s the limit for this charismatic young emo group, whose fans gobble up their music no matter what language it’s in.
