Dave Benton

Dave Benton
Dave Benton in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Efrén Eugene Benita
Born	(1951-01-31) 31 January 1951 (age 66)
Origin	Aruba
Genres	Pop

Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, birth name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician from Aruba who lives in Estonia. He is the 2001 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. Since 2011, he has been a guitarist and songwriter for the Brooklyn-based lo-fi indie rock band LVL UP. He has released solo music under the moniker Trace Mountains.

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".