All-in.de Birthday Article!

All-in.de posted an article on the twin’s birthday giving a very good summary of their career up to this point. Although it’s all things we know, I still found it was a very good read and highlighted some things that most articles don’t. For a full translation be Peki of our forums, look below the break.

Tokio Hotel fans feared for the band’s future this year when singer Bill Kaulitz had to undergo vocal cord surgery. A sold-out tour through Europe as well as some concerts in the USA were cancelled.

But that was only a small obstacle in the teen rock stars’ endless string of successes. “It’s all fully healed. I’m okay,” Bill assured his teenaged fans (most of them female) only a few weeks after the procedure. The twins of the band, Tom and Bill Kaulitz, who celebrate their 19^th birthday today, have been happily reunited and have made up for the small setback together with their bandmates. In May, the four boys from Magdeburg thrilled audiences on the other side of the Atlantic, and their first English album ‘Scream’ climbed to fifth place in the US charts.

Now the German youth band is playing their angst-dripping music in the Big Apple and making New York girls faint. For many groupies, frontman Bill, with his extravagant hairdo and black-lined eyes, has long been a fashion icon. But his twin brother Tom doesn’t need to hide behind his guitar, either.

The identical twins grew up in Magdeburg, where the foundation for their musical career was laid. Even as children, the brothers discovered their love for music. While Bill developed his voice, Tom practised guitar playing. Together with drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing, the twins founded the band ‘Devilish’ in 2001 and gathered their first fans at local concerts.

After Bill Kaulitz had appeared in the talent competition ‘Children’s Star Search’ in 2003, producer Peter Hoffmann saw a chance to make it big with the teen band. At his own expense, he provided singing and music lessons for the four young amateurs and got his colleagues David Jost and Pat Benzner to join the team. Shortly before the four Magdeburg boys were supposed to release their first album as ‘Tokio Hotel’ with Sony BMG, the record company cancelled their contract. Universal Music Group eventually snapped up a bargain and ensured commercial success for Tokio Hotel with clever marketing strategies.

In June 2005, the four newcomers presented their first single ‘Durch den Monsun’ on a TV show. A month later, the song landed the top position in the German single charts. The complementing album ‘Schrei’ also went to the top in German and Austrian charts. On top of that, it got into the French Top 20 in its first week, which no German band had accomplished before.

After this commercial success, the young rock stars were immediately nominated for awards. In their debut year, they won a ‘Bambi’ award in the category of ‘Pop National’ and a ‘Comet’ award in the category of ‘Best Newcomer’. In 2006, their collection of trophies was completed with an ‘Echo’, a ‘Bravo Otto’ and the ‘Goldene Stimmgabel’.

At the beginning of last year, Tokio Hotel released their new album ‘Zimmer 483′, which again addresses teen problems. Conscription almost spoiled the upcoming tour for Tom and Bill, but the German army will have to do without the two inseparable young rock stars for now. “We can’t be apart from each other for long,” Tom told the ‘Zeit’ magazine ‘Leben’. “The two of us make up one whole, one person.”

For the musical adaptation of teen heartaches, Tokio Hotel were awarded the ‘Golden Kamera’ in the category of ‘Musik National’ in February. Beside their success in music, the teen idols demonstrated academic proficiency when they finished high school and received their diplomas with an average of 1.8 (A-).

And even though fans all around the world go crazy at the sight of the four boys from Magdeburg, they too have shown that they have good heads on their shoulders. When parts of a bus stop from the cult band’s hometown were offered in several internet auctions for an overall price of 14600 Euros recently, they didn’t sell.