RJ sings the blues

RJ Benjamin is using music to nurse his broken heart

RJ Benjamin is nursing a broken heart.

The prolific musician and producer’s dream of leaving the country, teaching music and settling down with the love of his life in London has been painfully dashed – by the woman for whom he was giving up fame in South Africa.

This week, a blue Benjamin opened up to City Press about his miserable December holidays, because the woman he would only refer to as Shayne had dumped him.

“She broke up with me over Christmas. The hardest thing is knowing that we didn’t break up because we don’t love each other but because the obstacles we had were too hard to get across,” said Benjamin, who gave an emotional farewell to his fans at the Loft in Melville late last year.

This happened after the pianist and first Idols SA music coach announced that he would be retiring from making music and packing his bags for London, where he planned to settle down with Shayne and teach music.

Shayne, who is from Botswana, is said to be in London studying psychology.

But in December he started tweeting about his unhappiness.

On December 29, he posted this tweet: “Got back from Durban 2 days ago. Had a gr8 time. Then yesterday it ended; 2day I feel lost, alone; like a failure.”

This was followed by more postings in the same vein, where his pity party included tweets about drinking whisky all night and having a broken heart.

This week Benjamin said there were many factors that contributed to the split, but he would not divulge what they were. He insisted that he and his former love were still friends, but he would not be moving to another country.

“I’ve retired as an artist, I won’t be recording any more albums. I’m still producing for other artists though; I will never stop doing that.”

His last album, Inside, has a love song dedicated to Shayne called Her.

“It’s really hard to sing the song. At the moment it’s a heartbreak situation for me. I love that song and it’s the first I ever wrote on a guitar and about a girl.”

While he may be going through a bit of a Bridget Jones moment, his work has been keeping him occupied and so has his album promotion in France next month.

He is also musical director of the reality show, Clash of the Choirs, which is yet to air on local TV screens.

At least he should be grateful he doesn’t have a tattoo of the woman etched on his body for the rest of his life.