Michel Martelly construction and briefly attended a community college in Miami. In 1986, after one semester, he returned to Haiti just as Jean-Claude Duvalier, then president-for-life, was heading into exile. In 1987, Martelly returned to Miami with his then-girlfriend, Sophia Saint-Rémy, whom he later married in a small ceremony in Miami, Florida. They returned to Haiti in 1988. Upon his return to Haiti, Martelly had his first breakthrough in the music industry when he began playing keyboard as a fill-in musician in local venues in Pétion-Ville and Kenscoff, upscale suburbs of Port-au-Prince. Martelly "sang playful, romantic numbers over a slow méringue beat
Elections in Haiti cast in the first-round election. A second round was scheduled for March 20, 2011 with the two highest vote-getters, Mirlande Manigat and Jude Célestin. Protests claiming fraudulent voting resulted in the electoral commission removing Célestin from the race. This promoted Martelly from his original third-place finish in the first-round, to face Manigat in the run-off. The last presidential election was held on 28 November 2010 with a runoff on 20 March 2011. Michel Martelly won the runoff election held on 20 March 2011 with 67.6% of the vote against 31.7% for Mirlande Manigat and was sworn into office on 14