Last October 24, 2015’s “Sa Tamang Panahon” proved that “AlDub” is really the most popular “breakout” love team. Last Saturday’s event marked as the biggest event for the 36-year old Philippine noontime variety show, Eat Bulaga as live audience filled the Philippine Arena in Santa Maria, Bulacan that has a maximum capacity of 55,000. Sa Tamang Panahon made a history not only because of the jampacked location but also because Eat Bulaga made sure that everyone around the world who want to witness this much awaited event will be able to do so by setting up a live stream on YouTube and live T.V. airings in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, Japan and other countries with no commercial break. What made this event truly phenomenal is the record-breaking million tweets it has generated. According to Twitter AlDub did not just break their previous records but they even break the 35.6 million tweets pulled by the World Cup’s Germany versus Brazil match in 2014 by generating 41 million tweets with their hashtag #AlDubEBTamangPanahon.
If you live in the Philippines, you must be born yesterday if you have not even heard about AlDub. AlDub is a play on the first names of Alden Richards and Yaya Dub (Divina Ursula Bokbokova Smash) portrayed by the Philippine’s YouTube sensation, Maine Mendoza. Their “love story” is part of the KalyeSerye portion of the “Juan for All, All for Juan,” segment of Eat Bulaga. Prior to their much awaited first date and appearance in one stage in Sa Tamang Panahon event, Alden and Yaya Dub interaction was only through the split screen frame and they only communicate through their hand written messages for each other and of course through lip-synching a part of a popular song, or lines from films or TV series.
It cannot be denied that AlDub is the most talked about love team not just in the Philippines but even worldwide, in fact, even BBC News featured a story about them, ‘AlDub’: A social media phenomenon about love and lip-synching in October 27.
I will be honest enough to say that I am not really a fan of AlDub, I will still prefer to watch On the Wings of Love or Pangako Sa’yo, but I will admit that I’ve seen some episodes of this KalyeSerye, in fact, I saw the episode how this love team accidentally started, I will not deny that I too find Alden and Maine cute and “nakakakilig.” And like me, a lot of Filipinos felt kilig (translated in English as feeling giddy) with this two beautiful people… and most people who were just curious to know what’s special about AlDub are now hooked with their story, that is why this love team is became phenomenal.
So… why do you think AlDub captured the hearts of the Filipinos all over the world?
Based on my interaction with my certified AlDub friends and based on the non-stop posts about AlDub that show up in my news feed in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram almost everyday, here are 5 reasons which in my opinion made this unexpected tandem won the hearts of many Pinoys.
- Use of Dubsmash, Dubsmash is a smart phone app that allows the user to lip sync audio clips of parts of a song or quotes from a movie or TV series, Filipinos are known to be very musically-inclined and lovers of music, that is why without a doubt, Dubsmash became popular app in the Philippines. Maine Mendoza initially became popular by posting her Dubsmash videos in various social media platforms and when she was casted as the snobbish Yaya Dub in KalyeSerye, instead of having her own dialogues, she would use dubsmash to communicate, until her love team with Alden was born… In their KalyeSerye, they only communicate by exchanging their dubsmash. Aside from enjoying the great playlist of cuts of songs used in their serye and loving Maine’s facial expression whenever she does her lip-synching, not hearing her actual voice added mystery to her personality. Viewers looked forward to the time when they will finally hear her real voice.
- The simplicity and spontaneity of AlDub, like what I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was able to watch the episode where the “accident” happened. It was very spontaneous, the camera captured how the supposedly snobbish character of Yaya Dub smiled when she saw Alden laughing at her while doing her lip-synching, apparently, Maine has a crush on Alden in real life… and this is where the unexpected thing started, the people behind the show thought of teaming them up. That simple, the love team was not forced or overrated, it just happened. And Maine of course made her Yaya Dub character so simple and she doesn’t seem to care how she will look whenever she does her overacting lip-synching and reactions, she is not afraid to act natural.
- Kilig Effect of the Cinderella-like Story for all ages, I’ve seen a love story like this before, a yaya and a boss love-story, sounds like Sir Chief and Maya, right? Stories like this never fail to capture the hearts of the viewers, why not? We all love to see stories about love and how a simple and ordinary lady like Yaya Dub can be loved by a prince-charming like guy and Philippine’s “Pambansang Bae” — Alden. Who would not feel kilig whenever Alden flashes his cute smile showing his dimples while Yaya Dub doesn’t know how to respond, will she smile back, is she going to hide her face or does she pretend that she was not affected? And crowd will even go wilder whenever Alden and Yaya Dub do their pabebe wave and exchange their dubsmash… How about the challenges that Lola Nidora threw at Alden in order for him to see Yaya Dub, will it not make you fall in love with him? And because we all believe in the power of love and in “forever” and viewers are waiting for Alden and Yaya Dub’s fairy-tale ending of happily-ever after, followers await for each episode to find out where the story of love and sacrifice will bring these 2 characters. Unlike the teleseryes that starred other popular love teams in the Philippines like LizQuen, JaDine and KathNiel that targeted younger generation of viewers (again I’d like to note that I’m a mom of 3 and I watch their series and movies), AlDub captured the hearts even of the “young at hearts,” their supporters are from all ages, single, married or separated, a daughter, a mom and even grandma!
- Effect of Use of Social Media. If you are not into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media platforms, you will not understand what I mean. Since this tandem was born, there was never a day that I didn’t see a post that has something to do with AlDub or KalyeSerye. Their popularity in all social media platforms allowed them to reach more Filipinos abroad (actually not just Filipinos). Twitter tagged AlDub as “global phenomenon” for breaking social media records which supported the result of a study that Philippines is the Social Media Capital of the world. That’s why it is not a surprise that AlDub supporters or AlDub Nation can pull every AlDub-related hashtag as trending topic, as they continue to express their excitement, happiness and kilig to Twitter, more and more people become curious and are starting to get hooked as well until they find themselves becoming one of the followers of @mainedcm and/or @aldenrichards02 in Twitter or Instagram until they start to take part in every conversation in the social media world about AlDub. In fact, Maine has now become one of the personalities with the fastest growing followings on Twitter next to Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.
- AlDub is a mirror of Filipino values and traditions, I’ve saved the best for last… this is the main reason why Filipinos love AlDub, not only their KalyeSerye portrays a typical love story that most Filipinos can relate with but it’s storyline gave importance to the old-school Filipino values and traditions. For a parent like me who now lives in another country and is raising 3 children, a show like this is something that I would like my children to see. KalyeSerye did not just show the importance of family but it also reminds us of the Filipino values and traditions that the new generation seems to forget. Who would not want to be reminded of how our elders brought us up with the best values that you would want the next generation to learn? KalyeSerye teaches values and traditions such as respect for the elders and for women, behaving in public appropriately and dressing aptly, traditional way of Filipino courting and being a genuine gentleman. You would definitely love Wally Bayola’s character as Lola Nidora every time she shares her wisdom and every time she reminds Yaya Dub of the things that she should be and shouldn’t be doing. And you would love Yaya Dub even more whenever she shows her love and respect for her lola and how she obeys her. Of course you will for sure fall inlove with Alden for showing respect to Lola Nidora despite the difficulties that he had to go through caused by Lola and how patient and gentleman he can be just to prove to Lola that he is deserving of Yaya Dub.
Resources:
#AlDub sets new record: #AlDubEBTamangPanahon pulls in 41 million tweets, Retrieved October 27, 2015
‘AlDub’: A social media phenomenon about love and lip-synching, Retrieved October 27, 2015.
