diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
index 10c8f47dc83..9362c3b239e 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@ import angular from 'angular';
 import _ from 'lodash';
 import * as dateMath from 'app/core/utils/datemath';
 import kbn from 'app/core/utils/kbn';
-import * as templatingVariable from 'app/features/templating/variable';
+import { CloudWatchQuery } from './types';
+import { DataSourceApi } from '@grafana/ui/src/types';
 // import * as moment from 'moment';
 
-export default class CloudWatchDatasource {
+export default class CloudWatchDatasource implements DataSourceApi<CloudWatchQuery> {
   type: any;
   name: any;
   proxyUrl: any;
@@ -448,20 +449,19 @@ export default class CloudWatchDatasource {
     // Datasource and template srv logic uber-complected. This should be cleaned up.
     return _.chain(targets)
       .map(target => {
+        if (target.id && target.id.length > 0 && target.expression && target.expression.length > 0) {
+          return [target];
+        }
+
+        const variableIndex = _.keyBy(templateSrv.variables, 'name');
         const dimensionKey = _.findKey(target.dimensions, v => {
-          return templateSrv.variableExists(v) && !_.has(scopedVars, templateSrv.getVariableName(v));
+          const variableName = templateSrv.getVariableName(v);
+          return templateSrv.variableExists(v) && !_.has(scopedVars, variableName) && variableIndex[variableName].multi;
         });
 
         if (dimensionKey) {
-          const multiVariable = _.find(templateSrv.variables, variable => {
-            return (
-              templatingVariable.containsVariable(target.dimensions[dimensionKey], variable.name) && variable.multi
-            );
-          });
-          const variable = _.find(templateSrv.variables, variable => {
-            return templatingVariable.containsVariable(target.dimensions[dimensionKey], variable.name);
-          });
-          return this.getExpandedVariables(target, dimensionKey, multiVariable || variable, templateSrv);
+          const multiVariable = variableIndex[templateSrv.getVariableName(target.dimensions[dimensionKey])];
+          return this.getExpandedVariables(target, dimensionKey, multiVariable, templateSrv);
         } else {
           return [target];
         }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts
index 8d761fb1fc6..38bafb7dfe8 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts
@@ -1,19 +1,17 @@
 import '../datasource';
 import CloudWatchDatasource from '../datasource';
 import * as dateMath from 'app/core/utils/datemath';
+import { TemplateSrv } from 'app/features/templating/template_srv';
+import { CustomVariable } from 'app/features/templating/all';
 import _ from 'lodash';
+import { CloudWatchQuery } from '../types';
 
 describe('CloudWatchDatasource', () => {
   const instanceSettings = {
     jsonData: { defaultRegion: 'us-east-1', access: 'proxy' },
   };
 
-  const templateSrv = {
-    data: {},
-    templateSettings: { interpolate: /\[\[([\s\S]+?)\]\]/g },
-    replace: text => _.template(text, templateSrv.templateSettings)(templateSrv.data),
-    variableExists: () => false,
-  };
+  const templateSrv = new TemplateSrv();
 
   const timeSrv = {
     time: { from: 'now-1h', to: 'now' },
@@ -35,7 +33,7 @@ describe('CloudWatchDatasource', () => {
   });
 
   describe('When performing CloudWatch query', () => {
-    let requestParams;
+    let requestParams: { queries: CloudWatchQuery[] };
 
     const query = {
       range: { from: 'now-1h', to: 'now' },
@@ -95,9 +93,18 @@ describe('CloudWatchDatasource', () => {
     });
 
     it('should generate the correct query with interval variable', done => {
-      ctx.templateSrv.data = {
-        period: '10m',
-      };
+      templateSrv.init([
+        new CustomVariable(
+          {
+            name: 'period',
+            current: {
+              value: '10m',
+            },
+            multi: false,
+          },
+          {}
+        ),
+      ]);
 
       const query = {
         range: { from: 'now-1h', to: 'now' },
@@ -167,7 +174,7 @@ describe('CloudWatchDatasource', () => {
       expect(ctx.ds.getActualRegion('some-fake-region-1')).toBe('some-fake-region-1');
     });
 
-    let requestParams;
+    let requestParams: { queries: CloudWatchQuery[] };
     beforeEach(() => {
       ctx.ds.performTimeSeriesQuery = jest.fn(request => {
         requestParams = request;
@@ -257,6 +264,205 @@ describe('CloudWatchDatasource', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('When performing CloudWatch query with template variables', () => {
+    let requestParams: { queries: CloudWatchQuery[] };
+    beforeEach(() => {
+      templateSrv.init([
+        new CustomVariable(
+          {
+            name: 'var1',
+            current: {
+              value: 'var1-foo',
+            },
+            multi: false,
+          },
+          {}
+        ),
+        new CustomVariable(
+          {
+            name: 'var2',
+            current: {
+              value: 'var2-foo',
+            },
+            multi: false,
+          },
+          {}
+        ),
+        new CustomVariable(
+          {
+            name: 'var3',
+            options: [
+              { selected: true, value: 'var3-foo' },
+              { selected: false, value: 'var3-bar' },
+              { selected: true, value: 'var3-baz' },
+            ],
+            current: {
+              value: ['var3-foo', 'var3-baz'],
+            },
+            multi: true,
+          },
+          {}
+        ),
+      ]);
+
+      ctx.backendSrv.datasourceRequest = jest.fn(params => {
+        requestParams = params.data;
+        return Promise.resolve({ data: {} });
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('should generate the correct query for single template variable', done => {
+      const query = {
+        range: { from: 'now-1h', to: 'now' },
+        rangeRaw: { from: 1483228800, to: 1483232400 },
+        targets: [
+          {
+            refId: 'A',
+            region: 'us-east-1',
+            namespace: 'TestNamespace',
+            metricName: 'TestMetricName',
+            dimensions: {
+              dim2: '[[var2]]',
+            },
+            statistics: ['Average'],
+            period: 300,
+          },
+        ],
+      };
+
+      ctx.ds.query(query).then(() => {
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim2']).toBe('var2-foo');
+        done();
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('should generate the correct query for multilple template variables', done => {
+      const query = {
+        range: { from: 'now-1h', to: 'now' },
+        rangeRaw: { from: 1483228800, to: 1483232400 },
+        targets: [
+          {
+            refId: 'A',
+            region: 'us-east-1',
+            namespace: 'TestNamespace',
+            metricName: 'TestMetricName',
+            dimensions: {
+              dim1: '[[var1]]',
+              dim2: '[[var2]]',
+              dim3: '[[var3]]',
+            },
+            statistics: ['Average'],
+            period: 300,
+          },
+        ],
+        scopedVars: {
+          var1: { selected: true, value: 'var1-foo' },
+          var2: { selected: true, value: 'var2-foo' },
+        },
+      };
+
+      ctx.ds.query(query).then(() => {
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim1']).toBe('var1-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim2']).toBe('var2-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim3']).toBe('var3-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim1']).toBe('var1-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim2']).toBe('var2-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim3']).toBe('var3-baz');
+        done();
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('should generate the correct query for multilple template variables, lack scopedVars', done => {
+      const query = {
+        range: { from: 'now-1h', to: 'now' },
+        rangeRaw: { from: 1483228800, to: 1483232400 },
+        targets: [
+          {
+            refId: 'A',
+            region: 'us-east-1',
+            namespace: 'TestNamespace',
+            metricName: 'TestMetricName',
+            dimensions: {
+              dim1: '[[var1]]',
+              dim2: '[[var2]]',
+              dim3: '[[var3]]',
+            },
+            statistics: ['Average'],
+            period: 300,
+          },
+        ],
+        scopedVars: {
+          var1: { selected: true, value: 'var1-foo' },
+        },
+      };
+
+      ctx.ds.query(query).then(() => {
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim1']).toBe('var1-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim2']).toBe('var2-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim3']).toBe('var3-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim1']).toBe('var1-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim2']).toBe('var2-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim3']).toBe('var3-baz');
+        done();
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('should generate the correct query for multilple template variables with expression', done => {
+      const query = {
+        range: { from: 'now-1h', to: 'now' },
+        rangeRaw: { from: 1483228800, to: 1483232400 },
+        targets: [
+          {
+            refId: 'A',
+            id: 'id1',
+            region: 'us-east-1',
+            namespace: 'TestNamespace',
+            metricName: 'TestMetricName',
+            dimensions: {
+              dim1: '[[var1]]',
+              dim2: '[[var2]]',
+              dim3: '[[var3]]',
+            },
+            statistics: ['Average'],
+            period: 300,
+            expression: '',
+          },
+          {
+            refId: 'B',
+            id: 'id2',
+            expression: 'METRICS("id1") * 2',
+            dimensions: {
+              // garbage data for fail test
+              dim1: '[[var1]]',
+              dim2: '[[var2]]',
+              dim3: '[[var3]]',
+            },
+            statistics: [], // dummy
+          },
+        ],
+        scopedVars: {
+          var1: { selected: true, value: 'var1-foo' },
+          var2: { selected: true, value: 'var2-foo' },
+        },
+      };
+
+      ctx.ds.query(query).then(() => {
+        expect(requestParams.queries.length).toBe(3);
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].id).toMatch(/^id1.*/);
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim1']).toBe('var1-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim2']).toBe('var2-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[0].dimensions['dim3']).toBe('var3-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].id).toMatch(/^id1.*/);
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim1']).toBe('var1-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim2']).toBe('var2-foo');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[1].dimensions['dim3']).toBe('var3-baz');
+        expect(requestParams.queries[2].id).toMatch(/^id2.*/);
+        expect(requestParams.queries[2].expression).toBe('METRICS("id1") * 2');
+        done();
+      });
+    });
+  });
+
   function describeMetricFindQuery(query, func) {
     describe('metricFindQuery ' + query, () => {
       const scenario: any = {};
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/types.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/types.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8436d63e7c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/types.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import { DataQuery } from '@grafana/ui/src/types';
+
+export interface CloudWatchQuery extends DataQuery {
+  id: string;
+  region: string;
+  namespace: string;
+  metricName: string;
+  dimensions: { [key: string]: string };
+  statistics: string[];
+  period: string;
+  expression: string;
+  returnData: boolean;
+}