Bene Schulz leaves the Elevator Boys to sing in German, four members carry on

The announcement

The group made the departure public in its podcast "Stuck in Elevator", as the German Press Agency (dpa) reported. Benedikt Schulz, 25, spent five years with the Berlin-based TikTok boy band, and the announcement was published on 30 October 2026. The timing drew attention because the band's first feature film, "Back to the 90s", premiered on Prime Video in August 2026. In the film a boy band faces a breakup when one member wants to quit, and an elevator sends the five back to 1995, the year Robbie Williams left Take That.

Why Schulz is leaving

Schulz said in a statement that over the months before the announcement his wish to make music in German had grown, while the group's joint songs are released in English. He said:

“I want to process my feelings, thoughts and personal experiences in my own songs and express myself in my mother tongue.”

Schulz also stressed that the decision was not aimed against the group, calling it a choice "for me and my own path", and said he would always remain an Elevator Boy at heart. Promiflash reported that he had earlier shared personal insights on TikTok, including critical reflections on his time in the group.

What the remaining four plan

Tim Schäcker, Julien Brown, Jacob Rott and Luis Freitag will continue as a four-piece. According to the group's statement, they want to pursue international projects and be more active in the United States. The four said the decision had initially brought uncertainty, because they had long pictured their future together, but that in the end it mattered to all of them that each member is happy and can go their own way. The statement adds that the four want to keep making music together.

Luis Freitag explained the five-member line-up in a 2024 interview on the OMR podcast:

“Five-person groups are simply very attractive for the whole visual dynamic, so we said: we have to be five.”

With one member gone, the group's visual format now works with one face fewer.

How the group formed

The five began filming short videos in an elevator in 2021, during the Corona pandemic, and the group takes its name from those clips. According to a portal cited by one of the reports, the elevator stood in a parking garage in Frankfurt. The clips, mostly with dance and lip-sync routines, spread quickly on TikTok and made the group internationally known within a few months. The five members were born between 1999 and 2001 and belong to Generation Z. Each has an individual account, and the group has one too, with millions of followers across social networks. The band has made music for around three years, and the members acted in "Back to the 90s" (2026) for Prime Video.