Last month, it was announced that Pharrell would be awarded Shoe of the Year at the 2025 Footwear News Achievement Awards (FNAAs) for his Virginia Adistar Jellyfish collaboration with Adidas. Now Billboard can exclusively announce that the award will be presented by none other than fellow Virginia Beach native and frequent collaborator Pusha T.

“Virginia is my home. It’s the origin,” Pharrell told Footwear News in their brand-new FNAAs issue (see the cover below). “So, when we create under the Virginia umbrella with Adidas we’re talking about roots, culture and identity —not just the shoe, but the ecosystem around it: the story, the place, the community.”

He added: “The Adistar Jellyfish was never about playing it safe. It was about expanding the idea of what movement could look like. I see it as freedom. There’s expectation, but really there’s an invitation to go a little further, to explore a little beyond.”

Pharrell and Pusha T met in the early ’90s and have always repped Virginia Beach throughout their stellar careers, so it only makes sense that Pharrell would be presented this award by another hometown hero. “Virginia Beach is already a cultural destination – where community comes together, where artists collaborate and new ideas are born – but there’s so much more to come,” he told Footwear News.

He concluded: “‘Go bigger’ was a mindset. If we’re going to do it, let’s really do it.”

This will cap an excellent year for Pharrell and Push, as they’re each nominated at the 2026 Grammys for their work on the Clipse album Let God Sort Em Out — including the top prize of album of the year — plus Pharrell snagged a best music film nod for the LEGO biopic Piece by Piece.

The 2025 FNAAs will take place Wednesday (Dec. 3) at Cipriani 25 Broadway in New York City.

The event will also honor Tommy Hilfiger with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Coco Gauff as Style Influencer of the Year, and Ronnie Fieg as Person of the Year. Other honorees include Jordan Brand (Brand of the Year), New Balance x Miu Miu (Collaboration of the Year), and Nordstrom (Retailer of the Year).

See the new cover below:

The Wicked: For Good film soundtrack debuts in the top 10 across seven Billboard charts (dated Dec. 6), including No. 1 on both the Soundtracks ranking and Vinyl Albums.

Led by its stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the album soars in with 122,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Nov. 27, according to Luminate. That sum marks the largest debut week for a soundtrack in 2025.

Plus, on the overall all-genre Billboard 200, as Wicked: For Good debuts at No. 2, it logs 2025’s highest-debut for a soundtrack — and the highest arrival since the first Wicked soundtrack also opened at No. 2 a year ago, on the Dec. 7, 2024-dated chart.

In addition to Wicked: For Good’s chart-topping bow on Soundtracks and Vinyl Albums, and its No. 2 entry on the Billboard 200, the album also makes top 10 starts on Top Album Sales (No. 2), Top Current Album Sales (No. 2), Indie Store Album Sales (No. 4) and Top Streaming Albums (No. 6).

Four tracks from the Wicked: For Good soundtrack also take a bow on the overall all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart: Erivo and Grande’s “For Good” (No. 43), Erivo’s “No Good Deed” (No. 56), Erivo and Jonathan Bailey’s “As Long As You’re Mine” (No. 91) and Grande’s “The Girl In the Bubble” (No. 100).

Wicked: For Good premiered in movie theaters on Nov. 21 and has earned over $270 million at the U.S. and Canada box office. It follows the first Wicked film, which was released in 2024 and garnered 10 Academy Award nominations, including two wins (for costume design and production design).

UPDATE (Dec. 2): In a judgment entered Tuesday, Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga reduced Megan Thee Stallion‘s trial award from $75,000 to $59,000. The judge said Megan can’t get damages for defamation because the jury found Milagro Gramz to be a member of the media, and the rapper’s team did not send a pre-lawsuit notice required for libel claims against journalists.

Therefore, the judgment finds in Megan’s favor only on intentional infliction of emotional distress and promotion of an altered sexual depiction, two claims for which the jury awarded Megan a total of $59,000. Judge Altonaga struck the additional $16,000 that Megan won for defamation.

Megan’s lawyers will contest the reduction in post-judgment motions. They’ll also seek at that time to add legal fees onto the damages amount.

PREVIOUSLY: A jury has held celebrity gossip blogger Milagro Gramz liable for defaming Megan Thee Stallion and reposting a deepfake pornographic video of the rapper in the wake of her shooting by Tory Lanez.  

A federal jury in Miami determined in a Monday (Dec. 1) verdict, reviewed by Billboard, that Gramz harmed Megan with her social media antics and awarded $75,000 in damages. That number will likely grow later on, since Megan won on a Florida law with a fee-shifting provision that could require Gramz to reimburse some of her hefty legal bills from the elite firm Quinn Emanuel.

“We’re thankful for the jury’s commitment to reinforcing the importance of truth, accountability and responsible commentary on social media,” said one of Megan’s lawyers, Mari Henderson, later on Monday. “This verdict sends a clear message that spreading dangerous misinformation carries significant consequences.”

A lawyer for Gramz, Jeremy McLymont, said in a statement, “We remain proud of the defense we presented and of Ms. Cooper’s willingness to stand up for her voice.”

“Ms. Pete and her attorneys asked the jury to send a message to the community by awarding Ms. Pete with an astronomical amount of damages,” said McLymont. “Indeed, the jury rejected Ms. Pete’s request and refused to send any such message as shown by the nominal damages Ms. Pete recovered.”

Megan’s lawyers argued during the weeklong trial that Gramz acted as Lanez’s “mouthpiece” to spread misinformation and tank her reputation. Lanez (Daystar Peterson) is serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2022 of shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument following a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills. He continues to maintain his innocence, though the conviction was recently upheld on appeal.

A loyal Lanez supporter, Gramz has for years used her social media presence to doubt the veracity of Megan’s account. Many of her posts about the shooting case have been outright false, such as her claims that Lanez’s gun supposedly went “missing.” Megan’s lawsuit also accused Gramz of violating a Florida law against “altered sexual depictions” by encouraging followers to watch a deepfake pornographic video of her.

Gramz denied being paid by Lanez and said her social media posts were First Amendment-protected journalism. The question of whether Gramz is a protected member of the media became a key issue during the trial. Jurors determined on Monday that she does have some media credentials, teeing up more post-trial litigation over whether the defamation verdict can stand.

Lanez himself was not a defendant or a witness in this trial. The Canadian rapper was supposed to give a videotaped deposition from prison, but was so uncooperative during the repeated questioning from Megan’s lawyers that he was held in contempt.

This story has been updated to include additional details on the verdict and statements from both sides.

Elphaba’s story may be complete now that Wicked: For Good is in theaters, but Cynthia Erivo is still defying gravity.

On Tuesday (Dec. 2), the Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning powerhouse simultaneously earned her first platinum-certified album and single from the RIAA thanks to 2024’s blockbuster Wicked soundtrack. Billed to Erivo, Ariana Grande and the Wicked movie cast, Wicked: The Soundtrack earned its platinum certification for crossing one million units in the United States. Last year, the soundtrack reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and topped Soundtrack Albums, going on to earn a nomination for best compilation soundtrack for visual media at the 2026 Grammys.

“Defying Gravity,” Erivo and Grande’s instantly iconic rendition of the musical theatre classic, also earned its platinum certification for surpassing one million units in the U.S. The duet peaked at No. 44 on the Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nod for best pop duo/group performance at next year’s ceremony. The three-time Oscar nominee also hit the Hot 100 with Wicked cuts like “What Is This Feeling?” (No. 62), “Dancing Through Life” (No. 86), “The Wizard and I” (No. 92) and “I’m Not That Girl” (No. 94). In total, Wicked earned four nominations at the 2026 Grammys.

Erivo has yet to comment on her RIAA certifications — but she also has plenty of musical triumphs to bask in this year. In June, she released her sophomore album, I Forgive You, which reached No. 45 on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and earned a 2026 Grammy nomination for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella (“Be Okay”).

By November, she followed that up with the Wicked: For Good soundtrack, once again billed to Erivo, Grande, and the film’s cast. The sequel’s soundtrack also reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, simultaneously topping Soundtrack Albums. Three of Ervio’s For Good tracks have reached the Hot 100, including “No Good Deed” (No. 56), “As Long As You’re Mine” (No. 91), and the title track, which is now the highest-charting Hot 100 hit of her career at No. 43.

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If Detroit Lions fans didn’t have enough to be excited about this season, Sony just gave their popular WH-1000XM5 headphones a Motor City makeover for the holidays. The limited-edition release follows last years partnership announcement, which made the electronic brand the NFL’s official headset partner.

The collection kicks off with a Detroit Lions colorway, which features the team’s iconic charging lion logo adorned on an all-silver XM5 headphone. The limited-edition collab is available to shop today, exclusively on Sony’s website. They retail for $400, with an initial flash sale price of $330.

Sony x NFL WH-1000XM5 Detroit Lions Headphones

Buy Now on sony $329.99 $329.99

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If you’re not a Lions fan, Sony has more NFL-inspired headphones dropping later this month. Sony will also debut a Buffalo Bills edition on December 8 and a Houston Texans edition on December 11. Similar to the Lions version, each XM5 headphone will feature each team’s logo on an all-silver device and deliver Sony’s signature noise cancellation, immersive sound, and up to 30 hours of battery life.

Sony opted to use the XM5 headphones instead of their newer XM6 model. However, the slightly older model still delivers an impressive audio experience with industry-leading active noise-cancellation.

As for the on-going NFL x Sony partnership, the company released official coaches headsets taking advantage of Sony’s signature noise-canceling technology and fine-tuned it to withstand the loud atmosphere of a football game. The headsets’ microphones are tuned to isolate the coach’s voice from the noise of the crowd, and Sony says they tested the headphones with real crowd noises of over 100 decibels to optimize noise-canceling performance.

To shop the latest Sony x NFL limited-edition headphones, head over to the brand’s site here. As the other team colorways go live, check back here for further shopping updates.