diff --git a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.test.tsx b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.test.tsx
index 58efb0e28f0..df14c9e02c8 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.test.tsx
+++ b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.test.tsx
@@ -54,6 +54,49 @@ describe('buildSelector()', () => {
     ];
     expect(buildSelector(labels)).toEqual('foo{bar="baz"}');
   });
+
+  describe('utf8 support', () => {
+    it('metric selector with utf8 metric', () => {
+      const labels: SelectableLabel[] = [
+        { name: '__name__', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'utf8.metric', selected: true }] },
+      ];
+      expect(buildSelector(labels)).toEqual('{"utf8.metric"}');
+    });
+
+    it('metric selector with utf8 labels', () => {
+      const labels: SelectableLabel[] = [
+        { name: '__name__', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'foo', selected: true }] },
+        { name: 'utf8.label', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'baz', selected: true }] },
+      ];
+      expect(buildSelector(labels)).toEqual('foo{"utf8.label"="baz"}');
+    });
+
+    it('metric selector with utf8 labels and metrics', () => {
+      const labels: SelectableLabel[] = [
+        { name: '__name__', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'utf8.metric', selected: true }] },
+        { name: 'utf8.label', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'baz', selected: true }] },
+      ];
+      expect(buildSelector(labels)).toEqual('{"utf8.metric","utf8.label"="baz"}');
+    });
+
+    it('metric selector with utf8 metric and with utf8/non-utf8 labels', () => {
+      const labels: SelectableLabel[] = [
+        { name: '__name__', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'utf8.metric', selected: true }] },
+        { name: 'utf8.label', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'uuu', selected: true }] },
+        { name: 'bar', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'baz', selected: true }] },
+      ];
+      expect(buildSelector(labels)).toEqual('{"utf8.metric","utf8.label"="uuu",bar="baz"}');
+    });
+
+    it('metric selector with non-utf8 metric with utf8/non-utf8 labels', () => {
+      const labels: SelectableLabel[] = [
+        { name: '__name__', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'foo', selected: true }] },
+        { name: 'utf8.label', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'uuu', selected: true }] },
+        { name: 'bar', selected: true, values: [{ name: 'baz', selected: true }] },
+      ];
+      expect(buildSelector(labels)).toEqual('foo{"utf8.label"="uuu",bar="baz"}');
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 describe('facetLabels()', () => {
diff --git a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.tsx b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.tsx
index 963590f3667..1eeb59d35ed 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.tsx
+++ b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/components/PrometheusMetricsBrowser.tsx
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import {
 
 import PromQlLanguageProvider from '../language_provider';
 import { escapeLabelValueInExactSelector, escapeLabelValueInRegexSelector } from '../language_utils';
+import { isValidLegacyName, utf8Support } from '../utf8_support';
 
 // Hard limit on labels to render
 const EMPTY_SELECTOR = '{}';
@@ -68,22 +69,38 @@ export interface SelectableLabel {
 
 export function buildSelector(labels: SelectableLabel[]): string {
   let singleMetric = '';
-  const selectedLabels = [];
+  const selectedLabels: string[] = [];
   for (const label of labels) {
     if ((label.name === METRIC_LABEL || label.selected) && label.values && label.values.length > 0) {
       const selectedValues = label.values.filter((value) => value.selected).map((value) => value.name);
       if (selectedValues.length > 1) {
-        selectedLabels.push(`${label.name}=~"${selectedValues.map(escapeLabelValueInRegexSelector).join('|')}"`);
+        selectedLabels.push(
+          `${utf8Support(label.name)}=~"${selectedValues.map(escapeLabelValueInRegexSelector).join('|')}"`
+        );
       } else if (selectedValues.length === 1) {
         if (label.name === METRIC_LABEL) {
           singleMetric = selectedValues[0];
         } else {
-          selectedLabels.push(`${label.name}="${escapeLabelValueInExactSelector(selectedValues[0])}"`);
+          selectedLabels.push(`${utf8Support(label.name)}="${escapeLabelValueInExactSelector(selectedValues[0])}"`);
         }
       }
     }
   }
-  return [singleMetric, '{', selectedLabels.join(','), '}'].join('');
+
+  const selectorParts: string[] = [];
+  const isLegacyName = singleMetric === '' || isValidLegacyName(singleMetric);
+
+  if (isLegacyName) {
+    selectorParts.push(singleMetric, '{');
+  } else {
+    selectorParts.push('{', `"${singleMetric}"`);
+    if (selectedLabels.length > 0) {
+      selectorParts.push(',');
+    }
+  }
+
+  selectorParts.push(selectedLabels.join(','), '}');
+  return selectorParts.join('');
 }
 
 export function facetLabels(