diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/__mocks__/CloudWatchDataSource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/__mocks__/CloudWatchDataSource.ts
index f846d4e254c..38587ea8cf6 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/__mocks__/CloudWatchDataSource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/__mocks__/CloudWatchDataSource.ts
@@ -9,7 +9,11 @@ import { CustomVariableModel } from 'app/features/variables/types';
 import { TemplateSrvMock } from '../../../../features/templating/template_srv.mock';
 import { CloudWatchDatasource } from '../datasource';
 
-export function setupMockedDataSource({ data = [], variables }: { data?: any; variables?: any } = {}) {
+export function setupMockedDataSource({
+  data = [],
+  variables,
+  mockGetVariableName = true,
+}: { data?: any; variables?: any; mockGetVariableName?: boolean } = {}) {
   let templateService = new TemplateSrvMock({
     region: 'templatedRegion',
     fields: 'templatedField',
@@ -19,7 +23,9 @@ export function setupMockedDataSource({ data = [], variables }: { data?: any; va
     templateService = new TemplateSrv();
     templateService.init(variables);
     templateService.getVariables = jest.fn().mockReturnValue(variables);
-    templateService.getVariableName = (name: string) => name;
+    if (mockGetVariableName) {
+      templateService.getVariableName = (name: string) => name;
+    }
   }
 
   const datasource = new CloudWatchDatasource(
@@ -125,3 +131,19 @@ export const aggregationvariable: CustomVariableModel = {
   ],
   multi: false,
 };
+
+export const dimensionVariable: CustomVariableModel = {
+  ...initialCustomVariableModelState,
+  id: 'dimension',
+  name: 'dimension',
+  current: {
+    value: 'env',
+    text: 'env',
+    selected: true,
+  },
+  options: [
+    { value: 'env', text: 'env', selected: false },
+    { value: 'tag', text: 'tag', selected: false },
+  ],
+  multi: false,
+};
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.test.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.test.ts
index c4baf75a911..e8f8619fd95 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.test.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import { ArrayVector, DataFrame, dataFrameToJSON, dateTime, Field, MutableDataFr
 import { setDataSourceSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
 
 import {
+  dimensionVariable,
   labelsVariable,
   limitVariable,
   metricVariable,
@@ -398,6 +399,19 @@ describe('datasource', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('convertMultiFiltersFormat', () => {
+    const ds = setupMockedDataSource({ variables: [labelsVariable, dimensionVariable], mockGetVariableName: false });
+    it('converts keys and values correctly', () => {
+      // the json in this line doesn't matter, but it makes sure that old queries will be parsed
+      const filters = { $dimension: ['b'], a: ['${labels:json}', 'bar'] };
+      const result = ds.datasource.convertMultiFilterFormat(filters);
+      expect(result).toStrictEqual({
+        env: ['b'],
+        a: ['InstanceId', 'InstanceType', 'bar'],
+      });
+    });
+  });
+
   describe('getLogGroupFields', () => {
     it('passes region correctly', async () => {
       const { datasource, fetchMock } = setupMockedDataSource();
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
index 6d7cdebe903..133d5b6ce50 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ import {
   MetricQuery,
   MetricQueryType,
   MetricRequest,
+  MultiFilters,
   StartQueryRequest,
   TSDBResponse,
 } from './types';
@@ -720,7 +721,7 @@ export class CloudWatchDatasource
     return this.doMetricResourceRequest('ec2-instance-attribute', {
       region: this.templateSrv.replace(this.getActualRegion(region)),
       attributeName: this.templateSrv.replace(attributeName),
-      filters: JSON.stringify(filters),
+      filters: JSON.stringify(this.convertMultiFilterFormat(filters, 'filter key')),
     });
   }
 
@@ -728,7 +729,7 @@ export class CloudWatchDatasource
     return this.doMetricResourceRequest('resource-arns', {
       region: this.templateSrv.replace(this.getActualRegion(region)),
       resourceType: this.templateSrv.replace(resourceType),
-      tags: JSON.stringify(tags),
+      tags: JSON.stringify(this.convertMultiFilterFormat(tags, 'tag name')),
     });
   }
 
@@ -836,18 +837,40 @@ export class CloudWatchDatasource
         return { ...result, [key]: null };
       }
 
-      const valueVar = this.templateSrv
-        .getVariables()
-        .find(({ name }) => name === this.templateSrv.getVariableName(value));
-      if (valueVar) {
-        if ((valueVar as unknown as VariableWithMultiSupport).multi) {
-          const values = this.templateSrv.replace(value, scopedVars, 'pipe').split('|');
-          return { ...result, [key]: values };
-        }
-        return { ...result, [key]: [this.templateSrv.replace(value, scopedVars)] };
-      }
+      const newValues = this.getVariableValue(value, scopedVars);
+      return { ...result, [key]: newValues };
+    }, {});
+  }
 
-      return { ...result, [key]: [value] };
+  // get the value for a given template variable
+  getVariableValue(value: string, scopedVars: ScopedVars): string[] {
+    const variableName = this.templateSrv.getVariableName(value);
+    const valueVar = this.templateSrv.getVariables().find(({ name }) => {
+      return name === variableName;
+    });
+    if (variableName && valueVar) {
+      if ((valueVar as unknown as VariableWithMultiSupport).multi) {
+        // rebuild the variable name to handle old migrated queries
+        const values = this.templateSrv.replace('$' + variableName, scopedVars, 'pipe').split('|');
+        return values;
+      }
+      return [this.templateSrv.replace(value, scopedVars)];
+    }
+    return [value];
+  }
+
+  convertMultiFilterFormat(multiFilters: MultiFilters, fieldName?: string) {
+    return Object.entries(multiFilters).reduce((result, [key, values]) => {
+      key = this.replace(key, {}, true, fieldName);
+      if (!values) {
+        return { ...result, [key]: null };
+      }
+      const initialVal: string[] = [];
+      const newValues = values.reduce((result, value) => {
+        const vals = this.getVariableValue(value, {});
+        return [...result, ...vals];
+      }, initialVal);
+      return { ...result, [key]: newValues };
     }, {});
   }