Bill Kaulitz
Bill Kaulitz (born September 1, 1989 in Leipzig ; real name Bill Kaulitz-Trümper ) is a German singer , voice actor and model . He became known as the lead singer of the band Tokio Hotel .
Life
Bill Kaulitz grew up with his identical twin brother Tom in Leipzig. His parents, the painter Simone Kaulitz and the driver Jörg W., separated when he was six years old. The mother moved with her two sons to her new partner Gordon Trümper in Loitsche near Magdeburg .
Bill and Tom Kaulitz showed a great interest in music at an early stage; According to their own statements, they started writing their own titles at the age of seven. Their stepfather, who himself plays guitar in the rock band Fatun , gave them their first appearances in the Magdeburg area. As the duo Black Question Mark , they performed their own songs at city festivals and at private parties; Bill took over the vocal part. As small children they could be seen in the TV film Crazy About You from Radio Bremen .
After performing in a Magdeburg club in 2001, Bill and Tom made the acquaintance of Gustav Schäfer and Georg Listing, who from then on supported the brothers musically. Under the newly chosen name Devilish , they initially appeared on talent shows and on small stages without being able to achieve commercial success.
Due to a lost bet against his brother, Bill Kaulitz took part in the casting show Star Search in the summer of 2003 . With his contribution ( It's Raining Men by the Weather Girls ), however, he was eliminated in the round of 16. The music manager Peter Hoffmann noticed him nonetheless and signed him and his band Devilish at the time.
The published 2005 Title Through the monsoon and the associated album Scream succeeded Tokio Hotel , now as the band was called, a commercial success. From the start, Bill Kaulitz was the center of media attention as a singer and front man. Overnight, the then sixteen-year-old became a teen idol, heartthrob and musical figurehead. This was favored by his extravagant appearance (dark clothing in combination with dark make-up and black-dyed hair).
Since regular school attendance was no longer possible with increasing success, Kaulitz dropped out of school in 2006. He made up his secondary school diploma via correspondence course. For the "exemplary performance" of having done this alongside their careers, he and his twin brother were awarded the distance learning youth award in 2009.
During the “1000 Hotels Tour” in March 2008, Bill Kaulitz fell ill with a sore throat . Because cysts had formed on his vocal cords, he was banned from speaking for two weeks. As a result, numerous appearances of the band had to be canceled.
In the German version of the film Arthur and the Minimoys (2006), Bill Kaulitz was the German voice actor for the title hero. In the sequel Arthur and the Minimoys 2 - The Return of Evil M (2009) he took on this role a second time.
The singer is now also working as a model . To mark the 30th anniversary of the German Vogue edition, Karl Lagerfeld took a multi-part photo series with him in September 2009. In January 2010 he presented the new collection of the fashion label Dsquared 2 in Milan .
Bill Kaulitz follows a vegetarian diet and in 2010 was named “Sexiest Vegetarian of the Year 2010” by PETA (Germany).
In 2013, Bill Kaulitz sat together with his brother Tom on the jury of the tenth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar .
Under the pseudonym "Billy", Bill Kaulitz released the single Love Don't Break Me and the EP I'm Not Ok in 2016 .
In November 2019, he sat next to Heidi Klum and Conchita Wurst on the jury of the ProSieben show Queen of Drags .
public perception
The singer's androgynous appearance led to increasing speculations about his sexuality. In 2007, for example, the French magazine Voici speculated in an article whether he might be homosexual ; The reason was an alleged outing on a website. This report was contradicted shortly afterwards by Bill Kaulitz. Kaulitz never made any clear statements about his sexuality and related rumors and would like this not to be an issue: “What makes people crazy is that they never know exactly who Bill is going home with . And I can't limit myself there. I don't want that to be an issue ”( Bill Kaulitz : 2017).
In the election of “Man of the Year” by the US edition of MTV News , Bill Kaulitz took 6th place in December 2008.
It was also more often speculated whether Bill Kaulitz suffered from an eating disorder. The already quite petite singer appeared in pictures from the beginning of 2010 very emaciated. He himself contradicted an anorexia and justified his weight loss with the recordings for the album Humanoid ; During this time he only ate irregularly and on some days even only consumed a few cups of coffee .
Kaulitz was often parodied on German television. The best-known parodies include Martina Hill's portrayal in Switch reloaded and Carolin Kebekus' in Friday Night News and Broken Comedy .
Others
- A wax figure of the singer has been at Madame Tussauds in Berlin since November 2008 . At the age of 19, he was the youngest artist to receive this honor.
- For the animal rights organization PETA , Bill and Tom Kaulitz could be seen on an advertising poster in chains and smeared with blood. They used it to protest against wild animals in the circus. In March 2012, they also drew attention to the killing of street dogs in Ukraine on the occasion of the 2012 European Football Championship .
Discography
- If I Die Tomorrow feat. Far East Movement
- I Am feat. Wyclef, David Correy, URR Jason (Rock Mafia - David Jost)
- Love Don't Break Me
Web links
- "Billy" website
- Bill Kaulitz in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Bill Kaulitz in the German dubbing file
Individual evidence
- ^ Carpediem (Magdeburg). meinestadt.de , accessed on October 6, 2014 .
- ↑ INTERVIEW - Tokio Hotel ( Memento of the original from May 7th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sound Generator, accessed March 1, 2010.
- ↑ Markus Jung: Youth Prize Distance Learning 2009 goes to Tokio Hotel. Fernstudium-Rundschau.de / Fernstudium-Infos.de, February 26, 2009, archived from the original on April 7, 2009 ; Retrieved October 6, 2014 .
- ↑ Bill Kaulitz and Nena are 'Sexiest Vegetarians 2010' . PETA Germany. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
- ↑ DWDL.de: Tokio Hotel and Culcha Candela in the new “DSDS” jury , accessed on September 14, 2012.
- ↑ Tokio Hotel: Bill Kaulitz treats himself to a break! | Celebrity fox. In: Celebrity Fox. Retrieved April 19, 2016 .
- ↑ Schwabe, Oliver (director). (2017). Tokio Hotel - Behind The World [Documentation]. arte.
- ↑ Is Bill Kaulitz gay? He talks about his sexuality. In: inTouch. Retrieved June 24, 2020 .
- ↑ mtv.com: The Countdown To MTV News' Man Of The Year Begins Today! News from December 15, 2008 (English article).
- ^ Tokio Hotel in Wachs - Bill Kaulitz is from Berlin , message on morgenpost.de from November 21, 2008
- ↑ Tokio Hotel promote PETA .
- ↑ http://www.prosieben.de/stars/news/bill-tom-kaulitz-tokio-hotel-stars-peta-tierschutzkampagne-1.3120779/
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kaulitz, Bill |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kaulitz-Trümper, Bill (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German rock singer, voice actor and model |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 1, 1989 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Leipzig |