The real Valerie from Amy Winehouse's hit song has finally been revealed.
Celebrity make-up artist, Valerie Star, has opened up in a recent interview about how she had been the muse behind the original Zutons track.
After dating frontman Dave McCabe, he wrote the song about the pair's long-distance relationship.
The song was written in 2006 for the band's second studio album, Tired of Hanging Around, according to VICE.
The narrative of the song focuses on Valerie and Dave's relationship after the make-up artist was banned from moving to the UK.
Valerie goes on to describe how she met the band's frontman in a bar in Florida, where she bought him a drink after watching him perform.
![Valerie was originally written by Zuton's frontman Dave McCabe - who was dating the make-up artist at the time. Photo / Facebook](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/6OV3VE6M33WQYWT26HUATXMMJI.jpg?auth=c0a3ff47ea637724f0b9488e73b4329903dd89d8abf59105b01271dadcd005aa&width=16&height=21&quality=70&smart=true)
She told VICE: "I'd fly out to see him. It was great. We had so much fun together."
Inspiration behind the lyrics came when Valerie was due for a move to Liverpool to be with the singer, but was unable to, due to an arrest that stopped the make-up artist.
Valerie admitted: "I got arrested the week before I was going to go to Liverpool to be with him. It was my, I want to say, seventh felony driving on a suspended license."
The lyrics, which asks whether Valerie got "a good lawyer", is talking about the legal battle that followed.
![Valerie explained how the song was written about her and Dave's long-distance relationship after an arrest lead her to be banned from moving to the UK to be with him. Photo / Facebook](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/DMVAQTY2YIY6DXTNYFXDOVZM4M.jpg?auth=5278bfdd39acef9fcd63565cbb29d816f06254c43c751bea7e516aca0006626d&width=16&height=23&quality=70&smart=true)
She said: "I was supposed to have already been [in Liverpool] and I was like, 'I'm just going to be a little longer. I just have to deal with a little bit of a law thing. I kind of got arrested and spent every cent.' And that's how he wrote the song. And it was like, 'Did you have to go to jail / did your house go up for sale?'"
After Valerie decided to stay in the US, Dave revealed that his song about her was getting released as a single.
Her favourite line in the song "I've missed your ginger hair and the way you like to dress" recalled that special period in her life.
![Valerie says the line about her ginger hair is her favourite and says a lot about that period of her life. Photo / Facebook](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/OCMTMX4TZ3VEF5BR2QGSGDE324.jpg?auth=990f00c0db9eb4bf5878289bc99c479ec62a78ce3d8c6c5a5cf3d70c0a3e9e61&width=16&height=13&quality=70&smart=true)
She said: "I do like that part. And I used to dress really ridiculous back then too, per that line ('I've missed your ginger hair / and the way you like to dress'). It really was about that part of my life. I was dressing ridiculously fabulous, following around this boy in a band, and getting arrested really well."
When the song was re-released as a cover by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson, Valerie admitted that it felt surreal that a song written about her had achieved such major success.
She told VICE: "I remember meeting Mark [Ronson] when he was doing a radio interview alongside Dave. Mark said [to me], 'I feel like I should open up my wallet and just hand you money.'
"It was really funny. It's also kind of surreal."
A few years after the song's release in 2011, Amy tragically died of alcohol poisoning.
![Mark Ronson, (left), and Amy Winehouse, (right), on stage in London, 2008. Photo / Getty Images](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/ANJP32HK3GRRVNZXTXTYWBOF7E.jpg?auth=dc176955bb148aed2ef74be175b31d00eca7601c9f671dfe73238ba6248622cb&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
Mark Ronson recently spoke of the late star's success and called her a genius, according to the Sun.
He said: "Nothing will ever be as important or as loved as Back To Black. Amy was the first person I ever worked with, the most honest and most talented.
He added: "She wrote the song Back To Black in ten minutes.
Amy Winhouse's Black to Black album went on to become the UK's best selling album of the 21st century.