Allah, Allah, Allah: The Role of God in the Arab Version of The Voice

This article discusses Arabic expressions referring to God, such as inshallah, mashallah, and alhamdulillah in the 2014 season of the Arab version of the talent show The Voice. It discusses the question to what extent these expressions are used by the various actors in the show, in particular its four jury members and three presenters, and it tries to explain why they use them and to what
purpose. The analysis is set against the background of the question what the relationship is between ‘language’ (in this case, the various varieties of Arabic) and ‘religion’ (in this case, Christianity and Islam). The analysis yielded nearly 40 Arabic expressions referring to God (Allah or Rabb (Lord)) that together showed up more than 600 times in the 10 episodes of the show that were the object of
analysis. The conclusion is that the expressions indeed have ‘religious’ roots but that they have at the same time become part and parcel of not necessarily religiously intended speaking styles expressing all kind of feelings, such as astonishment, surprise, disappointment, etc. This conclusion goes well
with observations made in earlier research on the questions at stake.