At that time, the group (still calling itself Sunnyglade) focused on writing and performing songs with English lyrics, and they enjoyed their first major success when they won the Hessischer Rockpreis 2000 and finished second in the Deutscher Pop-Preis contest.

The band's first gigs as Juli took place in June 2002 and they recorded their first professional demo in October 2002 with producer Michael Gerlach.

Following positive feedback from various record labels, their music publisher decided to organize a showcase for 16 January 2003 at the Oxymoron in Berlin.

In June 2004, Juli release their debut single "Perfekte Welle", which turned into a kind of anthem for the new rise in popularity of German song lyrics, and also gave its name to a collection of compilations of music with German lyrics (Perfekte Welle - Musik von hier).

However, "Perfekte Welle" (German for "Perfect Wave") was the subject of controversy and was banned from radio and TV stations after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (see below).

The band's critically acclaimed debut album Es ist Juli was released in September 2004 and peaked at #2 in Germany, #4 in Austria and #7 in Switzerland, selling more than 700,000 copies within a few months.

After participating in a radio-tour organized by Eins Live through Nordrhein-Westfalen in September 2004, Juli started their own club tour through Germany, which was completely sold out.

After the tsunami disaster in southeast Asia in December 2004, when tidal waves killed more than 280,000 people, most radio stations took "Perfekte Welle" out of rotation right away, because, according to them, its lyrics had become involuntarily ambiguous and could cause offense.

Apparently at various radio stations during the first few days after the catastrophe, because of auto rotation, the song popped up right after reports from the affected area, and some of the audience considered this to be deliberate sarcasm.

The video of "Regen und Meer" got some attention in the media, because the band was playing the part of a terrorist group from 1977 and referred directly to the Red Army Faction (RAF) and the abduction and murder of Hanns-Martin Schleyer.

From third quarter 2005 onwards, the band made very few official appearances, choosing instead to retreat to Bochum to work on their second studio album.

After the release of "Wir Beide", the second single from the album, Juli started touring to support Ein neuer Tag.

In April 2007, the song Stolen by Dashboard Confessional was rerecorded as a duet between lead singer Eva Briegel and Chris Carrabba and released on 27 July 2007.

On 13 June 2014 the band made an appearance at Kieler Woche and played two new songs, including the first Single Insel (Island) which was released as a download on 12 September 2014.

One thing that is clearly missed out in that case is that all three bands were already writing German songs, and played with the same line up before their first recording contract.

Juli have recently appeared in a Dashboard Confessional music video where lead singer Eva Briegel also sang.