In this day and age, rarely is something more upsetting and jarring than a TV show having the audacity to change its theme song. People were mad when The White Lotus had a new opening credits soundtrack for Season 2, and again for Season 3 — but at least there was some scoffing warranted this time around, because gone entirely were our beloved loo-loos. (Consensus: the original Season 1 theme, "Aloha!," is undeniably the best, but Season 2's "Renaissance" is a banger that very much grows on you.)
The composer of all three of these pieces of music, Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, will not be coming up with another change that will piss off a population just begging for some constancy, though. In an exclusive interview with The New York Times, the Chilean-Canadian revealed that, after winning three Emmys for his work on the show, he will not be returning for a fourth season, citing creative differences.
The composer told the publication's Callie Holtermann that conservations with the series' producers would verge into "hysterical" territory, with Tapia de Veer repeatedly being asked for music that was less experimental and more upbeat. Apparently, creator Mike White was even against using the Season 1 "Aloha!" theme, which became a viral sensation and was remixed into a whole lot of DJ sets over the past couple of years.
"He had a temp score, a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe," Tapia de Veer said. "And there's literally no edge to it. It's a good song; it's nice music. There's just absolutely no — whatever you find in the White Lotus music, the relationships with the characters — there's none of that. It's just nice background music."
He continued, "I just stuck to what I was doing. And when I was giving versions, it was still the same thing: There were still crazy people and screaming and stuff like that. From there, it became this weird relationship of, 'How do I pass all this weird music into the show?'"
Threads of "Aloha!" were very much present in "Renaissance," the second season's theme he reworked for the Italian setting. The Season 3 theme, "Enlightenment," replaced that entirely, prompting a bunch of backlash.
"When that came out, I had TMZ calling me, even people from England and from France, because they wanted some kind of statement about the theme. People are furious about the change of the theme, and I thought that was interesting," the composer reflected. "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. He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn't happy about that."
"I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think," Tapia de Veer added. "So he was just saying no to anything. So I just uploaded that to my YouTube."
Ultimately, though, the composer said he was happy to have gone through the "struggle": "It was worth all the tension and almost forcing the music into the show, in a way, because I didn't have that many allies in there." You can listen to the full, uncut version of the "Enlightenment" main title theme from Season 3 below.