Bill Kaulitz (born 1 September 1989), also known as Billy for his solo project, is a German singer and songwriter. He is best known for his work as the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Tokio Hotel.
Kaulitz was born on 1 September 1989 in Leipzig, East Germany. He has an identical twin brother, Tom, who is older by ten minutes. His parents, Simone Kaulitz and Jörg W., separated when Kaulitz was seven years old. Simone married Gordon Trümper, the guitarist from German rock band Fatun on 1 August 2009, after dating for 12 years.
Kaulitz showed an early interest in singing, as did Tom in playing guitar. Trümper noticed the twins' musical inclinations, and helped the twins to start their own band. According to Kaulitz in several interviews, he and Tom started writing music at the age of seven years.
At the age of 10, the brothers began performing live in Magdeburg near their hometown of Loitsche. They played small shows and while their audiences enjoyed them, they were largely unknown. The band lacked a drummer and bass player and the twins relied on a keyboard to fill in other instrumental sounds.
The year the brothers turned 12, they met Georg Listing (then 14) and Gustav Schäfer (then 13) in the audience of one of their shows. Listing and Schäfer were friends and, after the show, having liked what they heard and saw, made an offer to join. The band was promptly renamed "Devilish" due to an article published at the time that referred to their "devilishly great" sound. The four continued to perform, but aside from being featured on a small-time German news program somewhere between late 2002 and early 2003, Devilish were not going anywhere until Kaulitz auditioned on the reality TV talent show "Star Search."
This continued until 2005 when Jost arranged a meeting between the band and Universal Music Group's Interscope Records and Tokio Hotel was signed. They began working immediately, releasing their debut LP Schrei ("Scream") later that year. Their first single from Schrei was "Durch den Monsun" ("Through the Monsoon"), which reached #1 in Germany within a month of its release.
Tokio Hotel launched their debut tour in Germany, to support the release of Schrei and its singles. They toured Germany and also recorded a live DVD. On stage, Kaulitz was noted and well known for his energetic style and harmonizing with the fans (he would frequently let the audience sing verses instead of him).
In 2006, Kaulitz voiced the role of Arthur in the first part of the German version of the film Arthur and the Invisibles.
Tokio Hotel were a household name in Germany at this point, and this compelled the band to return to the studio. After the success of Schrei, Tokio Hotel began working on their second album, Zimmer 483 (Room 483), released in February 2007. The album spawned three singles initially: "Übers Ende der Welt" ("Over the End of the World" – released as "Ready, Set, Go!"), "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump"), and "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side (I am there)" – released as "By Your Side"). A fourth single, "Heilig" ("Holy" – released as "Sacred"), was released in 2008.
To support the release of Zimmer 483, Tokio Hotel began a continental tour of Europe, spawning another live DVD and a large publicity boost. ...
Source: Article "Bill Kaulitz" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
