diff --git a/pkg/models/dashboards.go b/pkg/models/dashboards.go
index 863e2275f90..cdcc4d52364 100644
--- a/pkg/models/dashboards.go
+++ b/pkg/models/dashboards.go
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ func NewDashboard(title string) *Dashboard {
 // GetTags turns the tags in data json into go string array
 func (dash *Dashboard) GetTags() []string {
 	jsonTags := dash.Data["tags"]
-	if jsonTags == nil {
+	if jsonTags == nil || jsonTags == "" {
 		return []string{}
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/models/dashboard_test.go b/pkg/models/dashboards_test.go
similarity index 53%
rename from pkg/models/dashboard_test.go
rename to pkg/models/dashboards_test.go
index 0828e51480f..b0b6796c4d8 100644
--- a/pkg/models/dashboard_test.go
+++ b/pkg/models/dashboards_test.go
@@ -15,4 +15,17 @@ func TestDashboardModel(t *testing.T) {
 		So(dashboard.Slug, ShouldEqual, "grafana-play-home")
 	})
 
+	Convey("Given a dashboard json", t, func() {
+		json := map[string]interface{}{
+			"title": "test dash",
+		}
+
+		Convey("With tags as string value", func() {
+			json["tags"] = ""
+			dash := NewDashboardFromJson(json)
+
+			So(len(dash.GetTags()), ShouldEqual, 0)
+		})
+	})
+
 }