Skip to main content

New Pharrell song ‘Virginia’ to be featured in ad campaign

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — An upcoming ad campaign for Virginia Beach will feature a new song by hometown star Pharrell Williams.

A city official tells the Virginian-Pilot that Williams contacted the city last year asking how he could help after the mass shooting at a municipal building in May.

That led to a a multi-year plan involving the singer in tourism and economic development initiatives.

As part of that, the singer will narrate two 60-second commercials with his soon-to-be-released song, “Virginia.”

School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.
Read Next Story