Michel Martelly, better known as "Sweet Micky", was born February 12, 1961, in Port-au-Prince, Haïti, He is a Haitian performing and recording artist, composer, and musical sociopolitical activist. Martelly has served as President of Haiti after winning the presidential election in 2011 until February 7, 2016. He now lives the life he did pre-presidency and still performs music here and there. He also enjoys spending time with his four children and his wife. Martelly is more popularly and affectionately known as "Sweet Micky," a moniker sometimes used interchangeably to refer to himself as well as his band (with original members, guitar player Alex Tropnas and bass player Welton Desire). Michel Martelly has been heralded as a pioneer of a unique brand of konpa music, a style of Haitian dance music sung in the Haitian Creole language. Originally, konpa was a fusion of Afro-Latin jazz and African/Haitian folkloric rhythms and was traditionally played by large bands composed of numerous group members and instrument sections. Martelly, a keyboardist and the self-proclaimed "bad boy" President of Compas, popularized a "nouvelle generation", or "new generation" style, of smaller bands with few members that relied predominantly on synthesizers and electronic instruments to reproduce a fuller sound. Martelly's and Sweet Micky's live performances and recordings are sometimes laced with obscenities and humorous sociopolitical commentary by Martelly. Outlandish and outspoken, Martelly has been known to drink publicly while performing in wigs, costumes, diapers, and Scottish kilts, and occasionally removed his own attire while performing. While arguably the most recognized and applauded musician and public personality in Haïti, Martelly's performance style has sometimes ignited controversy throughout the Haitian diaspora. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Michel+Martelly">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.