Auguste de Pradines past an early age. Their daughter, Emerante de Pradines Morse, also became a prominent Haitian musician, as did her son, Richard Auguste Morse, and another grandson, Michel Martelly, who also served as president of Haiti (2011-2016). Beginning in the 1890s, Kandjo was a prolific composer of up to four songs per week. Nearly all of Kandjo's songs were written in Haitian Kreyòl (Creole). Over nearly five decades, he composed love songs, as well as satirical songs and songs of political and social commentary. He would travel throughout Haiti to perform. In Port-au-Prince as well as throughout Haitian provinces, Kandjo "was
Michel Martelly song, "Prezidan", "an exuberant ditty that called for a president who played compas". At the 1996 Carnival, to which Manno Charlemagne, the mayor of Port-au-Prince, invited him, Martelly dressed in a pink wig and bra. As Martelly explained, it was intended in part as a political statement: "If you see me as a Macoute, then I'm a Macoute. If you see me as gay, I'm gay. What you think of me is no problem, as far as I am concerned. You have the right to think what you want. I know who I am, and that's the main thing." In