Season 4 of “The White Lotus” will have a new location — and a new composer.
Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, who has been the composer on the HBO drama for the past three seasons, revealed he won’t be back next time around.
During an interview with the New York Times, the Emmy winner shared he and series creator Mike White had different ideas for the iconic “White Lotus” theme song.
The two first clashed in Season 1, but it continued into this third season, which is currently airing.
Originally, Tapia de Veer created an eery theme song for the show’s first two seasons — on track with the mystery unfolding. The sounds included a fan-favorite “ooh-loo-loo-loo” chorus.
“Aloha!” — in Season 1 — had tribal drums and vocals. Season 2 did a mix of “Aloha!” with opera and nightclub tones for a more European sound, while Season 3’s theme is mellow and boppy.
The artist said this time around, White wanted more of “background music … a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe.”
The “ooh-loo-loo-loos” were ultimately axed.
“I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway,” Tapia de Veer told the outlet. “He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that.”
He added, “I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything.”
“I announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back, that I was leaving,” Tapia de Veer continued. “I didn’t tell Mike for various reasons; I wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock and whatever. Except I told the whole editorial team and music editor and producer and all that, but I didn’t think that they were going to tell him. At some point he heard about that.”
After multiple complaints, Tapia de Veer posted his uncut version of the song on YouTube.
“I was like, OK, this is like a rock band I’ve been in before where the guitar player doesn’t understand the singer at all,” he reflected on his experience.
Working with White reminded Tapia de Veer of the 1978 French film “La Cage aux folles,” which starred Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazz.
“You know how there’s Albin, which is like the star, and there’s Renato, who is the producer who is always taking care that Albin doesn’t lose his mind about something, because Albin is the diva and Renato is the guy who is trying to make everything work,” he stated. “To me, the show felt very much like that.”
Viewers were in fact up in arms over the theme song changing this season.
“The new white lotus theme song is mike white’s first miss,” one fan wrote on X, while another chimed in, “The only thing America can agree on right now is that the white lotus season 3 theme song is NOT it.”
Rounding out the distraught comments, another user said, “NEW SEASON OF THE WHITE LOTUS CHANGED THE THEME SONG WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT.”
White, 54, eventually opened up about why he switched up the sounds.
“I think that for the show to feel fresh, it needs to either expand or shift or change,” he told HBO.
“The first season was a lot about privilege and a kind of upstairs/downstairs thing with the employees and the guests and the comedy of that. And then, when we were in Italy [for Season 2], the theme was more about sex and the dynamic between men and women and sexual relationships,” White went on. “This season is dealing with more religion and spirituality and God, so the show itself and the kind of stories that these characters are facing are a little bit more existential and tragic.”
He added: “It has a little bit more of an operatic, dramatic dimension because of the nature of exploring existential, spiritual themes.”
