He made his debut as Executive Supervisor at the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf. Sand was later appointed as the Executive Supervisor for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016. He had been on leave from NRK since being appointed Executive Supervisor. In an interview with the news agency Reuters in 2011, Sand launched the idea of extending the Eurovision Song Contest to a potential Worldvision Song Contest. In May 2015, Sand stated to the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that the Worldvision idea was likely not moving forward, due to a lack of interest among countries outside Europe. He also cited the large cost of a worldwide song contest. In a 2016 interview with The Guardian he stated, "We are not looking at a sort of ‘Worldvision’ because that's too complicated (...)". Sand stated to Danish media in 2016 that the European Broadcasting Union was instead developing plans to export the Eurovision concept by launching separate versions of the song contest in Asia and the United States, depending on the level of interest in the relevant countries. He was featured in the newspaper Morgenbladet in May 2012, where the focus was on the song contest and international politics. On 30 September 2019, Sand announced his intention to step down as Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest after the 2020 edition, that would have been be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (which was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). He would also leave the Head of Live Events post which oversees the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Eurovision Young Musicians and Eurovision Choir competitions. On 20 January 2020, it was announced that Swedish TV producer Martin Österdahl would succeed Sand as Executive Supervisor. On 17 May 2020, Sand was officially succeeded by Österdahl as Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest after the one-off replacement show Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light was aired. He then returned to NRK, serving as project leader of its head office's relocation. References External links 1961 births Living people Television people from Oslo Norwegian male film actors NRK people TV 2 (Norway) people Norwegian television executives Melodi Grand Prix Eurovision Song Contest people Norwegian LGBT people Norwegian expatriates in Switzerland People from Geneva