Background
Benton was born in 1951 on the Caribbean island of Aruba and in his 20s moved to the United States.
Benton was born in 1951 on the Caribbean island of Aruba 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 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. Benton is octolingual, speaking English, Spanish, Papiamento, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, and Estonian.
Benton contested at the 1981 OTI Festival (Ibero-American equivalent of the Eurovision contest) held in Mexico City. He represented the Netherlands Antilles with the song "Vaya un amigo" as Efrén Benita and he finished in 20th place at this contest.
In 2010, Benton participated as a celebrity contestant on the fourth season of Tantsud tähtedega, an Estonian version of Dancing with the Stars.
He is also a grandfather.