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
Haiti round was a fraud and that Michel Martelly should replace Jude Celestin, René Préval's chosen successor. There was some violence between the contending parties. On 4 April 2011, the Provisional Electoral Council announced preliminary results indicating that Martelly had won the presidential election. After the U.S. funded $33 million to legislative and presidential elections in August and October 2015, a special verification panel – implemented by interim President Joceleme Privert – declared the results "tainted by significant fraud". Jovenel Moïse, the supposed winner of the 25 October 2015 election, had been hand-picked by former President Michel Martelly. The month-long examination