25 Years in the Making: Tokio Hotel Conquer Their First Arena Show in London

Did you even experience the 2007 emo craze if you didn’t have posters of Tokio Hotel in your bedroom? For most people in Europe, Tokio Hotel is a band that not only shaped their teenage years, but became part of their DNA before they even understood what it means. For me, Tokio Hotel have been this band since exactly that date. Nearly two decades later, standing inside the OVO Wembley Arena for the band’s first ever arena tour made the experience feel like revisiting a past version of myself. Except this time, I could enjoy the show with a glass of champagne and considerably more pyrotechnics.

I first saw Tokio Hotel live in 2009; it was in an indoor Olympic Stadium, one day after the band released their album Humanoid and the first stop of the iconic Humanoid City Tour. Back then, Tokio Hotel were absolutely everywhere – every record store had their albums, every bookstore had magazines they graced the cover of, MTV replayed their music videos constantly and the press was all over the band no matter what they did. And then came an unbearing silence, the one that frontman Bill Kaulitz has called ‘career suicide’. The band faded into the shadows, and seeing them live again took almost a decade, in venues much smaller and with a sound that was very very different. A band that was once a teenage German rock sensation had become a small indie phenom; naturally, seeing them hit the milestone of arenas in 2026 meant that Tokio Hotel never really left, they just brought a new and refreshed version of themselves back into the game.

Before the nostalgia-induced emotional damage began, the massive stage of OVO was taken over by Nia Ashleigh as this evening’s special guest. Opening for a band with such a devoted and multigenerational following is no small task, but Nia brought her own presence in the room, offering the audience a welcome introduction before the main event. Support slots in an arena can sometimes feel like an obligatory warm-up, but they also offer the opportunity to discover an artist outside your usual listening habits and spotify suggestions. Nia Ashleigh made the most of her platform, getting the crowd excited and setting the tone for an evening built around individuality, expression and the unapologetic pop-rock spectacle.

Tokio Hotel have never done subtle; and the atmosphere erupted before the curtain even dropped. The crowd was a wonderful collision of generations: fans who have grown up with Schrei and Zimmer 483, alongside newer devotees who discovered the band through their most recent releases, online presence and the Netflix hit series “Kaulitz & Kaulitz”. Opening with “Shout 2 The Universe”, “Ready, Set, Go!” and “Noise”, Tokio Hotel made a statement: they were here to celebrate their past, but certainly not to live in it.

The setlist was a 26-song journey through their catalogue, balancing older rock and emo anthems with more electronic tracks of their newer material. “White Lies” and “Feel It All” established a more contemporary club-like sound, whilst “Dye My Hair” and “Love Who Loves You Back” kept the energy mellow. At the same time, they brought songs that they have not performed for a while such as “Geisterfahrer”, “”Automatic”, “World Behind My Wall” and “Rette Mich”, where the memories of Tokio Hotel’s peak experimentation era came through. The German-language tracks were among the evening’s most affecting moments, with “Totgeliebt” and “Spring Nicht” having the whole room singing in German like language was never a barrier. Similarly, “An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)” was a song that had the arena shaking and shouting the lyrics back, as people who had grown up alongside the band made it feel like a collective promise. The covers also added another dimension, with “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls filling in “Spring Nicht”, and “Fahrt Mit Mir” and “Fata Morgana” having the room jump up and down. And of course, the show ended with the most iconic song of all “Durch Den Monsun”, and the audience singing back in delirium.

Setlist aside, there are two things in this show that do all the talking; the production and Bill Kaulitz. Bill has always understood the assignment and knows that fronting a band is as much about personality as it is about performance. At Wembley, he was absolutely magnetic: theatrical, playful, emotionally open and entirely comfortable with commanding an entire arena. He had four outfit changes which were a spectacle of their own right, from glittering jumpsuits and a halo-inspired headpiece to a sparkling gold suit complete with enormous wings. Similarly, the production was gloriously excessive. Suspended platforms (yes, more than one), moving treadmills, dramatic visuals and an oversized champagne bottle all made the show more theatrical and absurd. Bill riding the champagne bottle at the start of “Dogs Unleashed” was not something I knew I needed in my life, but now I cannot believe I lived all these years without having witness it. And of course, between songs, Bill’s humour kept the audience engaged, with self-deprecating comments and playful interactions that had the entire area in a surprisingly intimate mood.

The emotional centerpiece arrived with “Memory Lane,” with photographs chronicling the band’s journey from 2003 to today being shown on the screen (did anyone recognise the ones that had made it into bedroom posters or was it just me?) For fans who have been here since the beginning, these images were not just a nostalgic montage, but also a reminder that a lot of people in that room grew up with this band, making tears inevitable. Some of us have waited nearly twenty years for this moment, and Tokio Hotel made sure that it felt worth every second.

I may have arrived as the fan who discovered Tokio Hotel in 2007, but I left as someone reminded that some things never lose their magic. And if the band ever decides to ride that champagne bottle into another arena, I will absolutely be there.