Tokio Hotel (previously Devilish) is a German band founded in Magdeburg, Germany in 2001 by guitarist Tom Kaulitz and singer Bill Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing. The quartet has scored four number one singles and has released two number one albums in their native Germany, selling 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 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 territories such as: Portugal, Spain and Italy. Their first live album, Zimmer 483 - Live In Europe, was released near the end of 2007.
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 November 6, 2008 and the Award for Best Group on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award held in Berlin.
Over 2008 and 2009, Tokio Hotel got into the recording studio to release their second English album and third German album. The result was Humanoid, which was a much more techno-oriented release and a new sound that displayed how Bill - and the band as a whole - were maturing fast even though the twins had only just reached their 20's. Humanoid was released on October 6th, 2009, and just short of a month later Tokio Hotel picked up the "Best Group" award at the EMAs in Berlin on November 5th. Humanoid has so far spawned two singles, "Automatic"/"Automatisch", released in September 2009, and "World Behind My Wall"/"Lass uns laufen" (meaning "Let Us Run"), to be released in January 2010.
And for those of you that still want more...
Instant Karma by Tokio Hotel
