Dave Benton

Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, birth name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician from Aruba who lives in Estonia. He is one of the 2001 winners of the Eurovision Song Contest. At the age of 50 years and 101 days at the time of his victory, Benton is the oldest singer ever to win Eurovision.[1]

Dave Benton
Dave Benton in 2009
Background information
Birth nameEfrén Eugene Benita
Born (1951-01-31) 31 January 1951
Oranjestad, Aruba
GenresPop

Biography

Born Efrén Eugene Benita in 1951 on the Caribbean island of Aruba, he went to local schools. He was fluent in English, Spanish and Papiamento, the creole language of the island. He married and had a daughter. In his 20s, he separated from his wife and 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 wife Maris, an Estonian, on a cruise ship. They settled in Estonia in 1997 and have two daughters, Sissi and Lisa.

Benton has had a varied musical career in Northern European countries. He speaks eight languages: English, Spanish, Papiamento, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, and Estonian. He performed in the German production of the musical City Lights, after which he was asked to replace Engelbert Humperdinck on his Australian tour.

Benton has released and produced quite a few albums already, one of which in his native tongue, Papiamento. He has had more of a career as a performing artist.

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".

Other information
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gollark: It says "up to 492Kbps" downlinks on "high-end terminals" as a "best effort" on that BGAN thing...
gollark: The actual IPoAC standard requires duct-taping paper to the pigeon, I think, but if you use the nonstandard method of having them, say, carry micro-SD cards, you get better bandwidth.
gollark: IP over Avian Carriers!
gollark: `I can'tonly option.`

References
  1. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official Celebration. Carlton Books, 2015. ISBN 978-1-78097-638-9. Pages 32-33
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"
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