Status: 05/18/2023 06:00 a.m
More than 10 million records sold, French teenagers who only wanted to learn German because of them: Tokio Hotel from Magdeburg is one of the most successful German bands – and one that has polarized people. Now Bill, Tom, Georg and Gustav are celebrating their comeback: on May 18, 2023 also with a concert in the Große Freiheit in Hamburg.
It was in 2001 when the twin brothers Bill and Tom Kaulitz, then 12 years old, met the teenagers Gustav Schäfer and Georg Listing, who were one and two years older, at a performance in their hometown of Magdeburg. Discovered at a local gig by music producer Peter Hoffmann (Johannes Oerding, Falco, Oli P.), the four boys receive singing and instrumental lessons, a team of producers and authors and end up under contract with Universal Music in 2005. From that point on, Bill (vocals), Tom (guitar), Georg (bass) and Gustav (drums) called themselves Tokio Hotel and were about to conquer the world with their debut album “Schrei”.
“Through the monsoon” in the hearts of teenage girls
The first studio album, released in September 2005, reached number 1 in the charts in Germany and Austria and sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In particular, the single release “Durch den Monsun” makes the hearts of teenage girls all over the world fly to the young East German musicians – also through the English-language version “Monsoon”. In France, entire language classes are suddenly overcrowded because young fans want to learn German because of Tokio Hotel – this is only known to this extent from the rock band Rammstein.
Hit the nerve of the times
Tokio Hotel’s debut album are coming-of-age stories full of youthfully glorified notions of romance and never-ending love; about the desire to be independent and the search for one’s own self; about recognizing that not all sandbox friendships are made to last – and in a musical style that hits the nerve of the early 2000s. Added to this is the stage presence of the Kaulitz brothers, who are still the unmistakable face of the band. They have always been similar and more different at the same time than it can be.
From Gothic to Glamrock – an outward change
Bill and Tom Kaulitz are identical twins, born on September 1, 1989. At a young age, Tom (guitarist) cultivated an image somewhere between gangster rapper and hip-hop kid and today presents himself as a cool rebel with a long mane – and as the husband of Germany’s top model Heidi Klum. His brother Bill, on the other hand, offers a contrasting program on stage right from the start: as a front man, singer and heartthrob in mystical, gloomy gothic rock black. Today he is known for his fine, soft manner, his colorful, glittering, queer look with a bit of 70s glam rock attitude. He is still the individualist of the band. So is Bill, who will publish his autobiography “Career Suicide” in 2021. While Bill and Tom now live in Los Angeles (USA), Georg and Gustav live in Berlin and in their native Magdeburg.
From rock to synth pop
The guys from Tokio Hotel have not only made a 180-degree turn in their private lives and on the outside. After Schrei (2005), the albums Zimmer 483 and Humanoid followed at the usual two-year intervals. The fourth album “Kings of Suburbia” (2014) flopped. Having once filled the world‘s biggest stadiums, the teen idols kicked off their 2015 comeback tour at London’s relatively small Islington Assembly Hall. On the one hand, the slump in success can be attributed to the longer break between the third and fourth album, on the other hand, instead of their recognizable teen German rock, Tokio Hotel relied on a harmless mishmash of electro, R’n’B and synth pop. “Dream Machine” (2017) couldn’t build on the early years either. Several single releases and a two-year pandemic followed, which kept the band from their South American tour and became a time for reflection. In the spring of 2020, Bill, Tom, Gustav and Georg will go back to the studio together. The idea of re-issuing the formative song quickly arose: “Monsoon 2020”. “This has closed a circle,” says Tom Kaulitz. “We looked back at where we actually came from and what has happened since then.”
“Beyond The World”-Tour: Comeback mit neuem Album
After more than 20 years of band history, Bill, Tom, Georg and Gustav look back on the beginnings and have named their new record accordingly: “2001” was released as the sixth studio album on November 18th, 2022 – as a CD and as a fan box with poster, T-shirt, sticker sheet and more, so with everything that fans know and love from the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to numerous legendary stage costumes by Bill Kaulitz and an exhibition of awards and instruments, a throwback to a Tokyo hotel teenage room with posters and merch made the fan hearts of those present beat faster at the album release party. “Our new album ‘2001’ is the most colorful and self-confident album of our career! It combines all facets of Tokio Hotel from twenty years of band history. We had been in the studio together again for a long time and after the corona-related cancellation of the Latin America tour we had it together again for the first time in years Time for four – like when we first met at the age of twelve. It was important to us to take our friends on this journey with us at the release party.”
In April 2023, Tokio Hotel will go on a big “Beyond The World” tour. On Thursday, May 18, 2023, one of the 16 gigs will take the band to the Große Freiheit in Hamburg.
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