Labrinth not involved in Euphoria's third season

The third season of TV drama Euphoria will not feature music by Labrinth, HBO confirmed on Friday, after the pop star previously said he was "done" with the industry.

The London singer and producer wrote the dramatic, moody score and several songs for the first two series of the popular US teen drama.

Last year, HBO, which broadcasts Euphoria, announced that he would be part of the returning show, this time joined by fellow composer Hans Zimmer.

But in March, Labrinth distanced himself from the forthcoming chapter in a strongly worded Instagram post which criticised the network and record label Columbia, which releases the soundtrack.

Labrinth criticised the show in an expletive-heavy statement, which concluded: "I'm out. Thank you and good night."

In an update posted on Saturday - ahead of the release of season three in the US on Sunday followed by the UK on Monday - Labrinth explained he will not let people treat him badly.

"People will comfortably lie in this industry and still call themselves honest people," he wrote.

"So no cap, I decided to remove whatever music I had in [Euphoria]. I spoke to HBO, as far as I know, we are cool. I left because, last truth, when I work for someone, their vision is paramount to me. But I don't let people treat me like [expletive]".

HBO confirmed he was no longer involved in the show but did not elaborate on the reasons why. BBC News has also approached Labrinth's representatives and Columbia for a response.

Labrinth sang several of his songs from the first two seasons of Euphoria, including Still Don't Know My Name, while performing at the Coachella music festival in California this weekend.

His eclectic brand of cinematic-sounding pop music blends R&B, electronic, hip-hop and soul. One atmospheric track taken from the show, Never Felt So Alone - a collaboration with Billie Eilish - earned him a Grammy nomination in 2024.

Asked to explain what had happened with Labrinth and Euphoria, the show's creator and writer Sam Levinson recently told Rolling Stone: "I don't know."

He added: "He [Labrinth] is an incredible collaborator and someone who really built the foundation of the sound of Euphoria."

On adding Oscar-winner Zimmer into the mix, Levinson said: "On Euphoria, each character's storyline is like its own film in a way.

"In general, I was less interested in needle drops and more interested in something that guided us through this world.

"They're out of high school, so the pop roots of it have faded away. At the same time, because of how I imagined it visually, I wanted to lean into an old-fashioned Hollywood Western score."

Zimmer, who has has produced scores for movies including Dune, The Lion King, Interstellar and True Romance, previously stated that Labrinth had "shaped the show's identity", and that he was "looking forward to contributing to the ongoing story and helping shape this new season through music".

Euphoria has been the launchpad for the careers of some of Hollywood's hottest stars - Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi.

And earlier this week they reunited on the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere of the show's third and possibly final season.

The show will return to HBO on Sunday, four years after the last instalment, and finds its main characters having evolved from being troubled teens to equally troubled twenty-somethings.

Several critics have suggested that latest series fails to reach the dizzy heights of its glory years, though.

The Telegraph's Eleanor Halls awarded two stars, declaring: "Euphoria has descended into one man's creepy, sex-obsessed fantasy." In another two-star review, BBC Culture's Caryn James said: "The show has lost its zeitgeisty edge."

The third instalment, according to Variety's Alison Herman, "feels like entertaining but disjointed fan fiction". And the Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg noted how "Zendaya still dazzles", but asked "has Sam Levinson's HBO drama aged out of relevance?"

The Independent's reviewer Nick Hilton, however, gave the "generation-defining show" four stars, saying it "paints a clear-eyed, unflattering portrait of modern America".