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Party people: (l-r) Nick, Mariah and Jasmine

Jasmine partied hard amongst a host of

glamorous celebrities to see in 2009

AFTER our regular snowy Christmas in

Aspen, we flew out to St Marten and from

there took a boat – in the dead of the night –

to the celeb-filled island of St Barts. The

ocean was so choppy and with our boat

bouncing erratically across the water, our

initial jokes about our ocean rollercoaster

soon came to a halt.

MC's (Maria Carey’s) brother Shawn

gallantly tried to comfort me with a

reassuring arm around my shoulder, but it

didn’t work. Neither did MC’s hubby Nick’s

regular cackles of “only 25 minutes to go!”

Once our feet finally touched the shore

and our stomachs were steady again, we

were driven to our stunning hilltop villa

overlooking the infamous Nikki Beach

where MC was making a quick appearance

the following night at an exclusive New

Year’s Eve party.

St Barts is full to bursting with superstars

every New Year’s Eve. The recent New

Year’s Eve was no exception with stars like

Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé, Jay Z, L.A Reid,

Daniel Craig and many more visiting the

island.

We made our way to the Nikki Beach

dinner and party and we began with a fivecourse

dinner, which included sushi,

crayfish, beef and plenty of bubbly to wash

it down.

At 11pm, MC stepped onto the ocean front

stage in a silver dress and a pair of

vertiginous heels, and began a show of 12

songs that included many of her hits. She

had the crowd – which included Beyonce,

L.A. Reid and his wife Erica – screaming,

singing and going nuts.

Feeling silly, I pretended to be one of MC’s

many loyal fans and screamed out, ‘We love

you’ at the top of my lungs! Imagine how

surprised I was when MC – despite having

her back towards me –recognised my voice

and said back for all to hear: “And I love you

too Jasmine Dotiwala.” Hee hee

– shame!

Straight after her last song, MC counted us

down to midnight, with the help of Nick. As

the clock struck 12, fireworks went off in

front of the beach all around our ocean view.

We all stood and enjoyed the excitement

and it was wonderful – though I prayed that

the Nikki Beach DJ would leave the decks so

that the incessant Euro-dance music would

stop. The Lord heard my prayer and at 1am,

Timbaland stepped up and really

represented with a two-hour set that had us

all sweating and excited!

It was amazing to see MC and Beyoncé

take their shoes off and dance, so I joined

them and we all stood on the infamous

Nikki Beach huge white cushions whilst

throwing some shapes.

Most of the time, the two newly wed

couples (MC and Nick, Jay and B) were

holding hands or sitting in each others’ laps,

and at one point, I even spotted Jay Z

discreetly and playfully smacking his wife’s

world famous derriere whilst dancing. Cute!

When Timbaland dropped loads of Biggie

tunes, the place was on fire with Jay Z

leading our section’s dances and jamming.

But when Tim dropped LL Cool Js

Headsprung, the section went quiet and Jay Z

sat down quick!

Tim performed all his hits and then he

played us lots of his new stuff – which

nobody knew. Just as we were looking at

him like, ‘hey, it’s New Year not your private

listening session’, he dropped a classic Jay Z

medley spanning from 1995 to present day,

which made the club bounce on its beach

front stilts!

We left the party on a high at 3am and

back at our mountain-view villa, we jumped

into the cold pool to cool us down. (Well,

MC’s manager Jim did!) Then, we staggered

off to our individual rooms and packed our

cases for our next flight to Mr and Mrs C's

home in the Bahamas. What a way to bring

in 2009!

Jasmine Dotiwala is the head of MTV Base. Email her at: jasmine@hiphop.com

Published: 19 January 2009
Issue: 1355

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