Listen to Tokio Hotel on Batanga

Tokio Hotel is a German band founded in Magdeburg, Germany in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist 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. Then Devilish changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German language spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo, due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels.

The quartet has scored four number one singles and has released two 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 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 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 Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Their first live album, Zimmer 483 - Live In Europe, was released near the end of 2007. On 25 March 2008, Scream was released in Canada, and was planned for release on 29 April in the United States, but due to Bill Kaulitz's vocal problems had to be postponed to 6 May.