diff --git a/public/app/features/plugins/sql/datasource/SqlDatasource.ts b/public/app/features/plugins/sql/datasource/SqlDatasource.ts
index 3adf02b4944..3ea0c6d5401 100644
--- a/public/app/features/plugins/sql/datasource/SqlDatasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/plugins/sql/datasource/SqlDatasource.ts
@@ -55,10 +55,9 @@ export abstract class SqlDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<SQLQuery, SQLO
   interpolateVariable = (value: string | string[] | number, variable: VariableWithMultiSupport) => {
     if (typeof value === 'string') {
       if (variable.multi || variable.includeAll) {
-        const result = this.getQueryModel().quoteLiteral(value);
-        return result;
+        return this.getQueryModel().quoteLiteral(value);
       } else {
-        return value;
+        return String(value).replace(/'/g, "''");
       }
     }
 
@@ -98,20 +97,14 @@ export abstract class SqlDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<SQLQuery, SQLO
     target: SQLQuery,
     scopedVars: ScopedVars
   ): Record<string, string | DataSourceRef | SQLQuery['format']> {
-    const queryModel = this.getQueryModel(target, this.templateSrv, scopedVars);
-    const rawSql = this.clean(queryModel.interpolate());
     return {
       refId: target.refId,
       datasource: this.getRef(),
-      rawSql,
+      rawSql: this.templateSrv.replace(target.rawSql, scopedVars, this.interpolateVariable),
       format: target.format,
     };
   }
 
-  clean(value: string) {
-    return value.replace(/''/g, "'");
-  }
-
   async metricFindQuery(query: string, optionalOptions?: MetricFindQueryOptions): Promise<MetricFindValue[]> {
     const rawSql = this.templateSrv.replace(
       query,
diff --git a/public/app/features/plugins/sql/types.ts b/public/app/features/plugins/sql/types.ts
index ad649fe03e4..c3e1e55769b 100644
--- a/public/app/features/plugins/sql/types.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/plugins/sql/types.ts
@@ -166,7 +166,6 @@ export interface ValidationResults {
 }
 
 export interface SqlQueryModel {
-  interpolate: () => string;
   quoteLiteral: (v: string) => string;
 }
 
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/MSSqlQueryModel.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/MSSqlQueryModel.ts
index e74eb112f67..45754ed51c9 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/MSSqlQueryModel.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mssql/MSSqlQueryModel.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ import { ScopedVars } from '@grafana/data';
 import { TemplateSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { applyQueryDefaults } from 'app/features/plugins/sql/defaults';
 import { SQLQuery, SqlQueryModel } from 'app/features/plugins/sql/types';
-import { FormatRegistryID } from 'app/features/templating/formatRegistry';
 
 export class MSSqlQueryModel implements SqlQueryModel {
   target: SQLQuery;
@@ -15,10 +14,6 @@ export class MSSqlQueryModel implements SqlQueryModel {
     this.scopedVars = scopedVars;
   }
 
-  interpolate() {
-    return this.templateSrv?.replace(this.target.rawSql, this.scopedVars, FormatRegistryID.sqlString) || '';
-  }
-
   quoteLiteral(value: string) {
     return "'" + value.replace(/'/g, "''") + "'";
   }
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/MySqlQueryModel.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/MySqlQueryModel.ts
index dbd0fee6895..c31ef7fcc0a 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/MySqlQueryModel.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/mysql/MySqlQueryModel.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-import { map } from 'lodash';
-
 import { ScopedVars } from '@grafana/data';
 import { TemplateSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
 
@@ -33,28 +31,6 @@ export default class MySQLQueryModel {
     return "'" + value.replace(/'/g, "''") + "'";
   }
 
-  escapeLiteral(value: string) {
-    return String(value).replace(/'/g, "''");
-  }
-
-  format = (value: string, variable: { multi: boolean; includeAll: boolean }) => {
-    // if no multi or include all do not regexEscape
-    if (!variable.multi && !variable.includeAll) {
-      return this.escapeLiteral(value);
-    }
-
-    if (typeof value === 'string') {
-      return this.quoteLiteral(value);
-    }
-
-    const escapedValues = map(value, this.quoteLiteral);
-    return escapedValues.join(',');
-  };
-
-  interpolate() {
-    return this.templateSrv!.replace(this.target.rawSql, this.scopedVars, this.format);
-  }
-
   getDatabase() {
     return this.target.dataset;
   }