Although he never achieved comparable international success similar to that of Papa Wemba or Zaiko Langa Langa, he played throughout Africa, Europe and the USA and is recognized as one of the fathers of modern African music and an elder statesman of Congolese Soukous. In reviewing the recent film on Wendo, a writer in the Kinshasa daily Le Potentiel wrote that "One cannot speak of modern music without evoking the name of Wendo Kolosoy." Soukous musicians who have come after him have referred to the 1940s and 1950s as ""Tango ya ba Wendo"" (""The Era of Wendo"" in Lingala).