Lifestyle
‘White Lotus’ Theme Song Composer Won’t Return for Season 4
Cristóbal Tapia de Veer did not have an entirely pleasant stay at “The White Lotus.”
Mr. Tapia de Veer, a 51-year-old composer who was born in Chile, joined a video call on Monday from his home in the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec, a gong the size of a beach ball visible over his right shoulder. We had planned to discuss his score for Season 3 of the HBO show — specifically, its reworked main title theme, which ignited a minor fury among fans when the season premiered in February.
The conversation went in a very different direction. Mr. Tapia de Veer, who has won three Emmy Awards for his work on “The White Lotus,” said he would not be returning for the show’s fourth season.
He described creative disagreements with the show’s creator and director, Mike White, that began during Season 1. Conversations with producers could be “hysterical,” Mr. Tapia de Veer said, and the show’s creative team repeatedly requested music that was more upbeat and less experimental than the work Mr. Tapia de Veer wanted to produce. (Representatives for HBO declined to comment for this article.)
“I feel like this was, you know, a rock ’n’ roll band story,” Mr. Tapia de Veer said. “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.”
And about that eerie Season 3 theme? Mr. Tapia de Veer loves it, but had hoped the season would include a longer version that builds into the more recognizable melody from the Season 1 and Season 2. Frustrated by its absence, he posted the “uncut ending” to his YouTube channel. (You can listen to it below.)
In the following conversation, which has been edited and condensed, Mr. Tapia de Veer reflected on his tenure with the show.
I want to go back to the moment when the Season 2 theme that you composed for “The White Lotus” became a phenomenon — it had all these remixes, it was playing in clubs. Did that put any pressure on the next season?
Pressure? Not really. The pressure has always been something else in this show. And since we’re talking themes, I wonder if I should tell you for the first theme, how it got to the second — like, the whole “White Lotus” theme thing. You know, I haven’t done any interviews, so I don’t even know where to start with this.
Start wherever you’d like.
It’s kind of weird right now because I announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back, that I was leaving. 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.
This is your last season, for sure?
Yeah, yeah. For sure.
Did Mike say anything to you when he found out that you planned to leave?
He says a lot of things, but I can’t really talk about that. There was a French movie, “La Cage Aux Folles.” 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. To me, the show felt very much like that.
Did it feel like that from the beginning?
When I got the script, I wasn’t sure that it was something for me, because it was very well written, but there’s a reality TV kind of vibe going on, and comedic. My stuff in general is the opposite of this, it’s super dark and edgy. But when we had the talk with Mike, I just told him in a joke that I thought we could do some kind of “Hawaiian Hitchcock,” and he really grabbed on that and he started laughing.
I feel like I need to give credit where credit is due, because it’s hard to know how something like “The White Lotus” can actually happen, which is harder than people might imagine. You see it afterward, and it’s a success, but to get there is quite the struggle. I was on the phone with her [Heather Persons, one of the show’s producers] all the time, and she was trying to convince Mike about this theme, because he didn’t want the theme.
He didn’t want the Season 1 theme?
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. 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.
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?
What direction were you given for the Season 3 theme, “Enlightenment”?
There was no direction. When I started working on this, I had a collection of Thai gongs that are unrelated to the show. So I started experimenting with that, and then I started looking for someone to play the saw u, which is the Thai violin, which in the theme happens in the beginning.
My mom sent me an accordion at some point, an Italian accordion, and I have no idea how to play it. But I was able to play that. I think it helps the melody, to make it more uplifting, because the melody is very dark.
How did you come up with the melody? Did you consider including that “ooh-loo-loo-loo” melody from Seasons 1 and 2?
The melody is special. It’s something very weird, and is almost impossible to sing unless you’re a singer with a good ear, because the intervals in it are really hard. It has a mystery in it that is kind of magic to me. It’s like there’s some witchery going on.
I have, like, over 20 versions of that theme, with and without the ooh-loo-loo-loos. But of course, in the 1:45 titles that’s allowed, there’s nothing from the other ones. That was kind of a risk, but we never talked about that. I don’t think everybody was really aware of how attached people were to the ooh-loo-loo-loos.
What was it like for you, watching people get so upset that the melody was different? (“I do not understand why you would break something that was perfect,” read one social media post.)
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.
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. So he was just saying no to anything. So I just uploaded that to my YouTube.
Do you think people have warmed up to the theme as it is?
Oh, yeah. At one point, people were like insulting me and sending me horrible things. And then I started seeing these videos: ‘You know what, I used to hate the theme but now I’m kind of dancing to it.’ It’s like they’re transformed. I was really excited about that.
How are you feeling now about the decision to move on?
I mean, it is what it is. You know, I was watching the Emmys, and it’s like, there’s one thing I’m pretty proud of and that is I feel like I never gave up. Maybe I was being unprofessional, and for sure Mike feels that I was always unprofessional to him because I didn’t give him what he wanted. But what I gave him did this, you know — did those Emmys, people going crazy.
People don’t remember, but at first some people were complaining about the music: “I can’t concentrate on the characters, and it’s too much and I’m so stressed out.” But I’m really happy to take those kinds of risks. That is the main thing that I’m most happy about — 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.
I treasure that more than something else I did that was just a success, and it works and that’s that, with less struggle. This was a good struggle.
First released in 2000, the acclaimed film Amores perros, which was produced and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, has been remastered and is returning to theaters.
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Before Amores Perros became widely regarded as a modern classic, it belonged to Mexico. The film premiered at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival in 2000, where it won The Grand Prix, launching a run of international acclaim that has never quite ended. This month, Amores Perros is back in theaters in a fully remastered format from its original Kodak film stocks.
The film’s plot centers on three strangers whose lives intersect at the scene of a car crash. Each story wrestles with overlapping issues of social class disparities, crime and familial betrayal. The release in Mexico coincided with the end of the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI’s 71-year hold on power. Amores Perros was followed by a period of original, contemporary films in Latin America that would prove the region’s studios could compete with Hollywood in scope and complexity.
One of the film’s lead charachters, Octavio, is played by actor Gael García Bernal.
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The film marked the directorial debut of Alejandro González Iñárritu, who would go on to win four Academy Awards including back-to-back best director awards for Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015). In a recent interview with NPR, Gael García Bernal, a lead actor in Amores Perros, called the film’s launch “a new geography in cinema.”
González Iñárritu and García Bernal spoke with Morning Edition’s A Martinez about their early collaboration and the film’s continued resonance with new audiences.
Listen to the interview by clicking on the blue play button above.
The broadcast version of this story was produced by Margaux Bauerlein.
Preparations underway for the Great American State Fair, as seen on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall last week.
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A lot is changing these days in Washington, D.C., with even more on the horizon: 10 city blocks of the National Mall will soon transform into a multi-week state fair spectacle, complete with a Ferris wheel, in honor of the country’s 250th birthday.
The “Great American State Fair” will run from June 25 through July 10, promising to bring state-themed pavilions, movie screenings, musical performances, military flyovers, nostalgic snacks, a daily rodeo — and potentially scores of tourists — to the nation’s capital.
It will feature more than 150 exhibits, with full participation across the United States and several U.S. territories, as well as “businesses, innovators and civic organizations,” according to Freedom250, the White House-backed campaign that is organizing the fair in addition to other semiquincentennial events.
“A master-planned celebration will unfold along the National Mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, featuring vibrant pavilions representing every U.S. state and territory,” says the White House website, adding that the beaux-arts style tents will also highlight national themes like agriculture, the arts, faith and family.
Workers started setting up the fair, in view of the U.S. Capitol, in late May.
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However, not all states are sending official government delegations to the fair. Officials in more than half a dozen states — including Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington — confirmed to NPR that they are not participating directly. Most cited financial considerations and a desire to prioritize celebrations in their own communities, though others voiced political concerns.
Rachel Reisner, a spokesperson for Freedom250, emphasized in an email that there is “a vast majority participating” among the states. Additionally, others are being represented by local businesses and organizations — such as two companies from North Carolina and a museum from Illinois.
“Whether represented by a governor’s office, a tourism board, or a beloved state company or organization, every community will be celebrated, and every American will see themselves in this once-in-a-generation event,” Reisner said.
The state fair is one in a series of patriotic anniversary events planned for D.C. this summer, including the UFC fight night outside the White House last Sunday and a fireworks-heavy July Fourth celebration that President Trump rebranded as a political rally in a Truth Social post on Monday.
In another post that day, Trump encouraged people to attend the kickoff to the fair on Wednesday — and, by extension, the “summer long Celebration of 250 years of American Independence.”
“We are going to have fun, and celebrate America!” he wrote.
That opening event was originally billed as a concert, though many of the performers originally attached to it — including Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, the Commodores and Young MC — have withdrawn in recent weeks. Organizers now say the kickoff will feature remarks by Trump and performances by Lee Greenwood and Christopher Macchio, musicians who have sung at Trump events before.
What to know about the fair
The fair is an all-day, rain-or-shine event. It is free and open to the public, though preregistration is encouraged.
Freedom250 is promising attendees an interactive experience at the state pavilions, from Michigan’s mechanical milking cow to Florida’s re-creation of a Spanish fort honoring explorer Juan Ponce de León.
There will also be activations by a wide range of companies, organizations and government agencies, from NASA and John Deere to Meta and the Washington Commanders.
Each of the fair’s 16 days has its own theme, including two “MAHA Mondays” and a military and veterans’ appreciation day. July Fourth is branded as the Independence Day Celebration, and the fair’s final day is billed as “The Next 250: Innovation.”
The extravaganza will span a wide swath of the National Mall, much of it already blocked off with fences and construction cranes. The fair may also impact air travel in the area.
In a press release this week, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority warned travelers at D.C.’s Reagan National Airport that their flights might be adjusted or delayed due to some of the America 250 celebrations — including the opening and closing days of the state fair.
“Many events will include downtown flyovers or other aerial displays such as fireworks or parachute jumps, which will affect flights periodically at Reagan National,” it said, adding that the most significant disruptions are expected on July 3 and 4.
Why some state governments aren’t participating
Nearly 10 states say they will not be spending funds or sending personnel to the D.C. fair. While all but one are led by Democratic governors, many told NPR the decision not to attend was a financial decision, not an overt political statement.
“The states were expected to fund and to staff a multi-week exhibit in Washington, D.C., which would entail getting staffers down to D.C., housing them, feeding them, and with the booths and everything … the estimated budget was at least $100,000,” said Cathryn Vaulman, a spokesperson for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont.
Vaulman said that money would have come out of the state’s budget for its own 250th celebrations — so leaders made a “resource-based decision” to focus on those instead. But she noted that plenty of other blue states, like New York, are still planning to staff the state fair.
Some other states estimated their costs as $100,000, though others were much higher: Sarah Hansen, director of the Maine Semiquincentennial Commission, told NPR that its cost estimates were “half a million dollars or more,” which she said was not feasible for the state, “given the federal government’s refusal to provide any funding.”
Washington Lt. Gov. Denny Heck’s office told NPR over email that the state opted out in large part because of confusion over costs.
The fair will span 10 city blocks on the National Mall for over two weeks.
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“We had heard participating states (whether that was state agencies, tourism authorities, etc.) were generally planning for their costs to be anywhere between $100k to nearly $1m,” Dallas Roberts, Heck’s chief of staff, said in the email.
Each state and territory gets about 600 square feet to build its exhibit, with no set dollar amount required to participate, according to Freedom250. It acknowledges that cost was a concern for many states, which is why some partnered with tourism bureaus and companies.
“Our ask was not your government entity must do this and give money; it was an invitation to the state to represent their culture, heritage, and landscape however they would like,” Reisner, the Freedom250 spokesperson, wrote in an email, adding that the event is funded by “both private and public dollars.”
Officials in a handful of states have been more outspoken in their criticism of how the event is being run.
Speaking to GBH News’ Boston Public Radio earlier this month, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who also opted out, said Trump “invited all the states to participate and wants to charge us to go down and put something on his exhibit.”
“It’s just ridiculous,” she added. “This is taxpayer money.”
Luke Harkins, a spokesperson for Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the state is not participating “due to both the cost of participating in the Fair and growing concerns that the event in Washington, D.C. is shaping up to be a more partisan affair than originally presented.”
Officials from different states told NPR they had different understandings of how representation from their state would work.
Jayette Bolinski, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said the Peoria Riverfront Museum volunteered to represent the state with an “Illinois-centric pavilion” featuring a hologram of stories from over 50 residents — none of which was paid for by state funds, she stressed. Vaulman, of Connecticut, said she believes its booth will have photos and posters of some sort, while Hansen of Maine said their inquiries to Freedom250 about this “have gone unanswered.”
What else is on the anniversary agenda — and who’s planning it
Planning for national 250th anniversary events mainly falls to two main groups, which have become increasingly politicized.
In 2015, looking ahead, Congress created a nonpartisan commission to orchestrate anniversary celebrations, which in turn created a nonprofit called America250. It’s composed mostly of private citizens, along with several members of Congress and representatives from federal agencies.
America250 appears to focus mainly on getting Americans involved in celebrations at the local level, such as attending synchronized nationwide block parties. It has gathered — and recently sealed — a time capsule with contributions from every state and is hosting a July Fourth concert in Los Angeles, with tickets selling for $17.76, featuring the Smashing Pumpkins, Chris Stapleton and Queen Latifah.
Freedom250, on the other hand, emerged from a Trump 2025 executive order establishing a task force for celebrating the milestone. Critics — including progressive consumer advocacy group Public Citizen — see this group as Trump’s attempt to bypass America250 after trying unsuccessfully to pack it with loyalists.
Freedom250 describes itself as “the national, non-partisan organization leading the celebration of our Nation’s 250th birthday.” Another sign of its standing in the administration: The official White House webpage for the 250th links out to Freedom250, not America250.
The group has organized many other high-profile anniversary events, including the White House UFC event, the July Fourth rally on the Mall, a July Fourth tall ship event on the East Coast and the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., an Indycar event scheduled for the National Mall in August.
Trump’s executive order says the 250th task force must disband at the end of the year, unless he extends it. And many of the beautification projects his administration is undertaking in D.C. — from restoring fountains to installing statues to repainting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — are tied to the anniversary but could shape the city far beyond it.
I took a ride on a tuk-tuk motorcycle taxi around Maputo, Mozambique, with my buddy and fellow All Things Considered producer, Vincent Acovino. We were in the country reporting on changes to U.S. funding for AIDS in Africa.
Vinny noticed it first: There was something magical about a number of the concrete apartment blocks and government offices here. With half a day off and a little googling, we gave ourselves an impromptu tour of the architecture of Amâncio “Pancho” Guedes. The late Portuguese-born architect designed some pretty cool buildings here in the 1950s and ’60s. They include the Prédio Abreu, Santos e Rocha pictured above, and other structures with evocative names like The Smiling Lion apartment block and the Lemon Squeezer church. Step into a small interior stairwell of The Dragon House, and you see a mural in sparkling black and white stone of a spiky dragon with a toothy grin. It transforms what would otherwise be a dim stairwell.
Guedes designed more than 500 buildings in the city, from churches to bakeries. I don’t have the language to capture it: the use of heavy materials, combined with the playful use of shapes and murals. “Eclectic Modernist,” I later learned, is how his work is described. One critic wrote that his work brilliantly mixes the “sculptural and figurative with practical requirements and traditional local identity.”
Maputo will change and I have to imagine not all of his work will survive. But stumbling into a town with a visual landscape that still shows Guedes’ thumbprint was a delight. For an afternoon, riding through the city streets in the open-air tuk-tuk, looking for what might have been his handiwork was a good time. Like an Easter egg hunt in concrete.
For more Far-Flung Postcards, click here.
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