diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.test.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.test.ts
index 1e5158630aa..c650ba4e4e9 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.test.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.test.ts
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ describe('LokiDatasource', () => {
         },
       ];
       expect(ds.applyTemplateVariables(query, {}, adhocFilters).expr).toBe(
-        'rate({bar="baz", job="foo", k1=~"v.*", k2=~"v\\\\\'.*"} |= "bar" [5m])'
+        `rate({bar="baz", job="foo", k1=~"v.*", k2=~"v'.*"} |= "bar" [5m])`
       );
     });
 
@@ -325,8 +325,15 @@ describe('LokiDatasource', () => {
       variable = {} as unknown as CustomVariableModel;
     });
 
-    it('should only escape single quotes', () => {
-      expect(ds.interpolateQueryExpr("abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|", variable)).toEqual("abc\\\\'$^*{}[]+?.()|");
+    it('should not escape', () => {
+      expect(ds.interpolateQueryExpr("abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|", variable)).toEqual("abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|");
+    });
+
+    it('should not escape single quotes in line filters', () => {
+      expect(ds.interpolateQueryExpr("|= `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`", variable)).toEqual("|= `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`");
+      expect(ds.interpolateQueryExpr("|~ `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`", variable)).toEqual("|~ `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`");
+      expect(ds.interpolateQueryExpr("!= `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`", variable)).toEqual("!= `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`");
+      expect(ds.interpolateQueryExpr("!~ `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`", variable)).toEqual("!~ `abc'$^*{}[]+?.()|`");
     });
 
     it('should return a number', () => {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.ts
index 4a436dc4b87..ca87c5de46f 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/loki/datasource.ts
@@ -814,7 +814,7 @@ export class LokiDatasource
   interpolateQueryExpr(value: any, variable: QueryVariableModel | CustomVariableModel) {
     // if no multi or include all do not regexEscape
     if (!variable.multi && !variable.includeAll) {
-      return lokiRegularEscape(value);
+      return value;
     }
 
     if (typeof value === 'string') {
@@ -1097,13 +1097,8 @@ export class LokiDatasource
     expr = adhocFilters.reduce((acc: string, filter: { key: string; operator: string; value: string }) => {
       const { key, operator } = filter;
       let { value } = filter;
-      if (isRegexSelector(operator)) {
-        // Adhoc filters don't support multiselect, therefore if user selects regex operator
-        // we are going to consider value to be regex filter and use lokiRegularEscape
-        // that does not escape regex special characters (e.g. .*test.* => .*test.*)
-        value = lokiRegularEscape(value);
-      } else {
-        // Otherwise, we want to escape special characters in value
+      if (!isRegexSelector(operator)) {
+        // We want to escape special characters in value for non-regex selectors to match the same char in the log line as the user types in the input
         value = escapeLabelValueInSelector(value, operator);
       }
       return addLabelToQuery(acc, key, operator, value);
@@ -1207,20 +1202,9 @@ export class LokiDatasource
     };
   }
 }
-
-// NOTE: these two functions are very similar to the escapeLabelValueIn* functions
-// in language_utils.ts, but they are not exactly the same algorithm, and we found
-// no way to reuse one in the another or vice versa.
-export function lokiRegularEscape<T>(value: T) {
-  if (typeof value === 'string') {
-    return value.replace(/'/g, "\\\\'");
-  }
-  return value;
-}
-
 export function lokiSpecialRegexEscape<T>(value: T) {
   if (typeof value === 'string') {
-    return lokiRegularEscape(value.replace(/\\/g, '\\\\\\\\').replace(/[$^*{}\[\]+?.()|]/g, '\\\\$&'));
+    return value.replace(/\\/g, '\\\\\\\\').replace(/[$^*{}\[\]+?.()|]/g, '\\\\$&');
   }
   return value;
 }