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
Michel Clérié parliament for six years. During that time, he was president of the Commerce Industry and Tourism Committee and also a member of Justice and Public Works Committee. During his electoral campaign, he was widely supported by the local population in the Grand'Anse department, especially the farmers and fishermen, with whom he still works closely. He is the special advisor of President Michel Martelly. He is the son of Guy Clérié, a former army captain, and of Ginette Laroche, the daughter of an aristocratic family of the northern part of the country (Cap-Haïtien). He married Joelle Baker, whose father owned a