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TRENDING: Where did 'What hafen vela?' come from?

Published May 14, 2025 5:51 pm

There's a new trend taking over social media as of late, and it has something to do with the 2009 cult classic vampire movie Twilight.

If you've been spending a significant amount of time on any social media platform, you might have come across this seemingly gibberish line, "What hafen vela? Why you crying again?"

Hundreds of online users have been lip-syncing the line since it resurfaced. Even Filipino stars such as Kyline Alcantara, Andrea Brillantes, and more couldn't help but hop on the trend to draw laughs from their followers.

If you're wondering who "vela" is and why she's crying, we're here to answer all your questions about where the trend came from and how people are engaging in it.

Origin of the 'What hafen vela' trend

The trend originated from a performance of a contestant in It's Showtime's impersonation talent show Kalokalike back in 2013.

Cristopher Diwata of Orion, Bataan competed in the segment as American actor Taylor Lautner. At the time, Lautner was best known for starring in The Twilight Saga film series.

Because of this, Diwata made his impersonation revolve around Lautner's werewolf character Jacob Black, one of the love interests of the films' protagonist Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart)

In his self-made skit, Diwata appeared to be talking to Bella as he asked her why she was crying and asked if her tears had something to do with the vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). He then confronted Edward and threatened to kill him for hurting Bella.

Afterwards, Diwata proceeded to sing A Thousand Years, the theme song of The Twilight Saga.

The now-iconic monologue amused users on social media and his lines became a source of memes and inside jokes across social media platforms.

Some have even made lyrics to Diwata's memorable lines to help others have a clear understanding of what he was saying: "What hafen vella? Why u crying again? I know, Vamfire rayt? Vamfayr wil feyt to me! Edward! What are you doing here? I trusted u to protik Vella, but you did not! I will sure you die, Edward! I will sure you die! From now on, she is mine."

Despite Diwata not winning the competition, he still won many Filipinos' hearts as his performance remains iconic to this day.

How people are jumping on the trend

While it's unclear what prompted the sudden surge of attention towards Diwata's performance lately, many of the posts referencing his lines came from TikTok.

One user used the "Why you so quiet? What's on your mind?" meme template to share that Diwata's performance lives rent-free in their minds. The post has since garnered more than 260,000 likes, which could mean that many others also couldn't get the hilarious scene out of their heads.

@zeinvcxy / TikTok

The trend had also reached the marketing team of Netflix, which is currently streaming the films of the Twilight series.

Some people have also decided to act out Diwata's lines for themselves, including some famous faces in the Philippines.

For instance, Kyline Alcantara passionately lip-synced the lines as she's surrounded by trees along with music artist Aaron Maniego.

@itskylinealcantara3 what hafen, @AARON MANIEGO ? #BeautyEmpire ♬ original sound - YUMS code:red - Jhi

Andrea Brillantes also joined in on the fun as she wore a black top with Bella and Edward's faces on it, signaling that she's a fan of the Twilight films.

@blythe ♬ original sound - Filipino Twilighttok 🍎 - Filipino Twilightok 🐀

Josh and Pablo of SB19 took it up a notch by personally delivering the lines themselves, much to the amusement of their group.

@officialsb19 wah haffen Vella? #SB19 ♬ original sound - SB19 Official

Because of the trend's popularity, many Filipinos began to swarm the TikTok account of Lautner himself to try to push him to do the "What hafen vela?" challenge.

"You've been famous in the Philippines because of the 'what hafen vela trend.' So do us a favor please!" one user pleaded.

Sadly, Lautner has yet to post his own take on the trend, but we've still got our fingers crossed!

Diwata has also been taking part in the resurgence as he performed his Kalokalike monologue again on TikTok. He's also been doing shoutouts wherein he changes "vela" to names of users in the comments and gives them a short message.