Dave Benton

Dave Benton
Dave Benton in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Efrén Eugene Benita
Born	31 January 1951 (1951-01-31) (age 60)
Origin	Aruba
Genres	Pop

Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, real name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician and 2001 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Benton was born on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 1951 and in his 20s moved to the United States. As a drummer and a backing vocalist, he worked with The Drifters, Tom Jones, Billy Ocean, José Feliciano and the Platters.

While living in the Netherlands in the 1980s, he met his future Estonian wife Maris on a cruise ship, then settled in Estonia in 1997. He has had a varied musical career in Northern European countries. He now lives in Estonia with his wife and two daughters, Sissi and Lisa. He performed in the German production of the musical 'City Lights' after which he was asked to replace Engelbert Humperdinck on his Australian tour.

Though he has released and produced quite a few albums already, one of which in his native tongue, Papiamento, his career to date shows him to be more of a performing artist rather than a recording one.

In 2001 he performed with budding Estonian rock singer Tanel Padar and boyband 2XL to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with their song "Everybody".

Trivia

• He contested in 1981 in Latinoamerican Festival OTI at Mexico, he was representing Netherlands Antilles with the song "Vaya un amigo" as Efrén Benita, he finished in 20th place at this contest.
• Benton won the Eurovision Song Contest for Estonia, but at the time he did not speak Estonian.
• He is also a grandfather. His oldest daughter from his first marriage, Nathaly, gave birth recently to a girl called Tanisia.

External links

• Dave Benton at Yahoo! Music
• Dave Benton at Estonian Bands Database
• Dave Benton at the Internet Movie Database
• Aruba-born Dave Benton Joins with Tanel Padar for Top 2001 Eurovision Honors
• Dave Benton: 'I was asked in Estonia and Finland'
• Estonians record previews, Dave Benton is back!

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Olsen Brothers with "Fly on the Wings of Love"	Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest (with Tanel Padar and 2XL) 2001	Succeeded by Marie N with "I Wanna"
Preceded by Ines with "Once in a Lifetime"	Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest (with Tanel Padar and 2XL) 2001	Succeeded by Sahlene with "Runaway"

Persondata
Name	Benton, Dave
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	31 January 1951
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death