HAPPY news! Pharrell Williams is to visit Yorkshire next summer for an exclusive UK arena performance. The American pop superstar will play Leeds First Direct Arena on June 12 after crossing the Atlantic to perform a set at the Isle of Wight Festival and a Dublin show at Croke Park with Irish band The Script.

Tony Watson, director of sales and marketing, says: “We’re delighted to be hosting this exclusive Pharrell arena gig. We’re over the moon that of all the UK’s great arenas, his team have chosen to come to Leeds.”

Williams, the 41-year-old singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer from Virginina Beach, is one half of the record production duo The Neptunes, producing soul, hip hop and R&B music with Chad Hugo. Since last December, he topped the charts on three separate occasions with Happy, from the soundtrack for Despicable Me 2, making him the first act to achieve that triple success since Guy Mitchell's Singing The Blues in 1957.

Tickets for Williams's Leeds show go on sale at 9am on December 12 at firstdirectarena.com, on 0845 248 1585 and at the arena box office.