diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana/apiserver/cmd.go b/pkg/cmd/grafana/apiserver/cmd.go
index 585e00ebb5a..1d18265d8e6 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana/apiserver/cmd.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana/apiserver/cmd.go
@@ -74,15 +74,17 @@ func newCommandStartExampleAPIServer(o *APIServerOptions, stopCh <-chan struct{}
 				return err
 			}
 
-			if o.Options.TracingOptions.TracingService != nil {
-				tracer.InitTracer(o.Options.TracingOptions.TracingService)
-			}
-
+			// o.Config(tracer) definitely needs to happen before we override the tracer below
+			// using tracer.InitTracer with the real tracer
 			config, err := o.Config(tracer)
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
 
+			if o.Options.TracingOptions.TracingService != nil {
+				tracer.InitTracer(o.Options.TracingOptions.TracingService)
+			}
+
 			defer o.factory.Shutdown()
 
 			if err := o.RunAPIServer(config, stopCh); err != nil {