diff --git a/public/app/features/expressions/ExpressionDatasource.ts b/public/app/features/expressions/ExpressionDatasource.ts
index cb9d4f16be6..096224682b6 100644
--- a/public/app/features/expressions/ExpressionDatasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/expressions/ExpressionDatasource.ts
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ export class ExpressionDatasourceApi extends DataSourceWithBackend<ExpressionQue
         return query;
       }
 
-      return ds?.interpolateVariablesInQueries([query], {})[0] as ExpressionQuery;
+      return ds?.interpolateVariablesInQueries([query], request.scopedVars)[0] as ExpressionQuery;
     });
 
     let sub = from(Promise.all(targets));
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/__mocks__/CloudWatchDataSource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/__mocks__/CloudWatchDataSource.ts
index 7cc2ab389e1..5ce973cca66 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(
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.test.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.test.ts
index c4baf75a911..4eed42a1a2d 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 +399,30 @@ describe('datasource', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('interpolateMetricsQueryVariables', () => {
+    it('interpolates dimensions correctly', () => {
+      const testQuery = {
+        id: 'a',
+        refId: 'a',
+        region: 'us-east-2',
+        namespace: '',
+        dimensions: { InstanceId: '$dimension' },
+      };
+      const ds = setupMockedDataSource({ variables: [dimensionVariable], mockGetVariableName: false });
+      const result = ds.datasource.interpolateMetricsQueryVariables(testQuery, {
+        dimension: { text: 'foo', value: 'foo' },
+      });
+      expect(result).toStrictEqual({
+        alias: '',
+        metricName: '',
+        namespace: '',
+        period: '',
+        sqlExpression: '',
+        dimensions: { InstanceId: ['foo'] },
+      });
+    });
+  });
+
   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 c4161b4e912..8dbf54c7e0a 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/datasource.ts
@@ -842,20 +842,26 @@ 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)] };
-      }
-
-      return { ...result, [key]: [value] };
+      const newValues = this.getVariableValue(value, scopedVars);
+      return { ...result, [key]: newValues };
     }, {});
   }
+  // 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];
+  }
 
   replace(
     target?: string,
@@ -929,13 +935,7 @@ export class CloudWatchDatasource
       namespace: this.replace(query.namespace, scopedVars),
       period: this.replace(query.period, scopedVars),
       sqlExpression: this.replace(query.sqlExpression, scopedVars),
-      dimensions: Object.entries(query.dimensions ?? {}).reduce((prev, [key, value]) => {
-        if (Array.isArray(value)) {
-          return { ...prev, [key]: value };
-        }
-
-        return { ...prev, [this.replace(key, scopedVars)]: this.replace(value, scopedVars) };
-      }, {}),
+      dimensions: this.convertDimensionFormat(query.dimensions ?? {}, scopedVars),
     };
   }
 }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts
index 72dfae2fe70..02869426c78 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloudwatch/specs/datasource.test.ts
@@ -585,7 +585,11 @@ describe('CloudWatchDatasource', () => {
     });
 
     it('should replace correct variables in CloudWatchMetricsQuery', () => {
-      const templateSrv: any = { replace: jest.fn(), getVariables: () => [] };
+      const templateSrv: any = {
+        replace: jest.fn(),
+        getVariables: () => [],
+        getVariableName: jest.fn((name: string) => name),
+      };
       const { ds } = getTestContext({ templateSrv });
       const variableName = 'someVar';
       const logQuery: CloudWatchMetricsQuery = {
@@ -608,9 +612,12 @@ describe('CloudWatchDatasource', () => {
 
       ds.interpolateVariablesInQueries([logQuery], {});
 
-      // We interpolate `expression`, `region`, `period`, `alias`, `metricName`, `nameSpace` and `dimensions` in CloudWatchMetricsQuery
+      // We interpolate `expression`, `region`, `period`, `alias`, `metricName`, and `nameSpace` in CloudWatchMetricsQuery
       expect(templateSrv.replace).toHaveBeenCalledWith(`$${variableName}`, {});
-      expect(templateSrv.replace).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(9);
+      expect(templateSrv.replace).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(8);
+
+      expect(templateSrv.getVariableName).toHaveBeenCalledWith(`$${variableName}`);
+      expect(templateSrv.getVariableName).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
     });
   });