diff --git a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.test.ts b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.test.ts
index 347f2b30be3..8a0aabe6480 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.test.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.test.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import { PrometheusDatasource } from './datasource';
 import { getPrometheusTime } from './language_utils';
 import { PrometheusMetricFindQuery } from './metric_find_query';
 import { PromApplication, PromOptions } from './types';
+import { escapeForUtf8Support } from './utf8_support';
 
 const fetchMock = jest.fn((options: BackendSrvRequest): Observable<FetchResponse<BackendDataSourceResponse>> => {
   return of({} as unknown as FetchResponse);
@@ -413,5 +414,51 @@ describe('PrometheusMetricFindQuery', () => {
       });
     });
     // </ ModernPrometheus>
+    describe('utf8 metric and label support', () => {
+      it('utf8 label - label_values(a_utf8_http_requests_total,instance.test) should generate label values query', () => {
+        const metricName = 'a_utf8_http_requests_total';
+        const label = 'instance.test';
+        const query = `label_values(${metricName},${label})`;
+        const metricFindQuery = new PrometheusMetricFindQuery(prometheusDatasource, query);
+        metricFindQuery.process(raw);
+        expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+        expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+          method: 'GET',
+          url: `/api/datasources/uid/ABCDEF/resources/api/v1/label/${escapeForUtf8Support(label)}/values?match%5B%5D=${metricName}&start=1524650400&end=1524654000`,
+          hideFromInspector: true,
+          headers: {},
+        });
+      });
+
+      it('utf8 metric - label_values(utf8.http_requests_total,instance_test) should generate label values query', () => {
+        const metricName = 'utf8.http_requests_total';
+        const label = 'instance_test';
+        const query = `label_values(${metricName},${label})`;
+        const metricFindQuery = new PrometheusMetricFindQuery(prometheusDatasource, query);
+        metricFindQuery.process(raw);
+        expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+        expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+          method: 'GET',
+          url: `/api/datasources/uid/ABCDEF/resources/api/v1/label/${label}/values?match%5B%5D=${metricName}&start=1524650400&end=1524654000`,
+          hideFromInspector: true,
+          headers: {},
+        });
+      });
+
+      it('utf8 metric and label - label_values(utf8.http_requests_total,instance.test) should generate label values query', () => {
+        const metricName = 'utf8.http_requests_total';
+        const label = 'instance.test';
+        const query = `label_values(${metricName},${label})`;
+        const metricFindQuery = new PrometheusMetricFindQuery(prometheusDatasource, query);
+        metricFindQuery.process(raw);
+        expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+        expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+          method: 'GET',
+          url: `/api/datasources/uid/ABCDEF/resources/api/v1/label/${escapeForUtf8Support(label)}/values?match%5B%5D=${metricName}&start=1524650400&end=1524654000`,
+          hideFromInspector: true,
+          headers: {},
+        });
+      });
+    });
   });
 });
diff --git a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.ts b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.ts
index 8be41c06364..69494f0f7fc 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/metric_find_query.ts
@@ -8,9 +8,11 @@ import { getPrometheusTime } from './language_utils';
 import {
   PrometheusLabelNamesRegex,
   PrometheusLabelNamesRegexWithMatch,
+  PrometheusLabelValuesRegex,
   PrometheusMetricNamesRegex,
   PrometheusQueryResultRegex,
 } from './migrations/variableMigration';
+import { escapeForUtf8Support, isValidLegacyName } from './utf8_support';
 
 export class PrometheusMetricFindQuery {
   range: TimeRange;
@@ -28,7 +30,7 @@ export class PrometheusMetricFindQuery {
     this.range = timeRange;
     const labelNamesRegex = PrometheusLabelNamesRegex;
     const labelNamesRegexWithMatch = PrometheusLabelNamesRegexWithMatch;
-    const labelValuesRegex = /^label_values\((?:(.+),\s*)?([a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)\)\s*$/;
+    const labelValuesRegex = PrometheusLabelValuesRegex;
     const metricNamesRegex = PrometheusMetricNamesRegex;
     const queryResultRegex = PrometheusQueryResultRegex;
     const labelNamesQuery = this.query.match(labelNamesRegex);
@@ -83,8 +85,13 @@ export class PrometheusMetricFindQuery {
     const end = getPrometheusTime(this.range.to, true);
     const params = { ...(metric && { 'match[]': metric }), start: start.toString(), end: end.toString() };
 
+    let escapedLabel = label;
+    if (!isValidLegacyName(label)) {
+      escapedLabel = escapeForUtf8Support(label);
+    }
+
     if (!metric || this.datasource.hasLabelsMatchAPISupport()) {
-      const url = `/api/v1/label/${label}/values`;
+      const url = `/api/v1/label/${escapedLabel}/values`;
 
       return this.datasource.metadataRequest(url, params).then((result) => {
         return _map(result.data.data, (value) => {
diff --git a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/migrations/variableMigration.ts b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/migrations/variableMigration.ts
index 08476c2f4b6..35c4c483180 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/migrations/variableMigration.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-prometheus/src/migrations/variableMigration.ts
@@ -4,8 +4,7 @@ import { buildVisualQueryFromString } from '../querybuilder/parsing';
 import { PromVariableQuery, PromVariableQueryType as QueryType } from '../types';
 
 export const PrometheusLabelNamesRegex = /^label_names\(\)\s*$/;
-// Note that this regex is different from the one in metric_find_query.ts because this is used pre-interpolation
-export const PrometheusLabelValuesRegex = /^label_values\((?:(.+),\s*)?([a-zA-Z_$][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)\)\s*$/;
+export const PrometheusLabelValuesRegex = /^label_values\((?:(.+),\s*)?(.+)\)\s*$/;
 export const PrometheusMetricNamesRegex = /^metrics\((.+)\)\s*$/;
 export const PrometheusQueryResultRegex = /^query_result\((.+)\)\s*$/;
 export const PrometheusLabelNamesRegexWithMatch = /^label_names\((.+)\)\s*$/;
@@ -97,7 +96,7 @@ export function migrateVariableQueryToEditor(rawQuery: string | PromVariableQuer
   return queryBase;
 }
 
-// migrate it back to a string with the correct varialbes in place
+// migrate it back to a string with the correct variables in place
 export function migrateVariableEditorBackToVariableSupport(QueryVariable: PromVariableQuery): string {
   switch (QueryVariable.qryType) {
     case QueryType.LabelNames: