diff --git a/pkg/labels/regexp.go b/pkg/labels/regexp.go
index fb684430c6..a7ba0a5946 100644
--- a/pkg/labels/regexp.go
+++ b/pkg/labels/regexp.go
@@ -410,10 +410,10 @@ type anyStringMatcher struct {
 }
 
 func (m *anyStringMatcher) Matches(s string) bool {
-	if !m.matchNL && strings.ContainsRune(s, '\n') {
+	if !m.allowEmpty && len(s) == 0 {
 		return false
 	}
-	if !m.allowEmpty && len(s) == 0 {
+	if !m.matchNL && strings.ContainsRune(s, '\n') {
 		return false
 	}
 	return true
diff --git a/pkg/labels/regexp_test.go b/pkg/labels/regexp_test.go
index a2193d9481..6e39b9ed7a 100644
--- a/pkg/labels/regexp_test.go
+++ b/pkg/labels/regexp_test.go
@@ -82,8 +82,14 @@ func TestNewFastRegexMatcher(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func BenchmarkNewFastRegexMatcher(b *testing.B) {
-	benchValues := append(values,
-		RandStringRunes(128), RandStringRunes(256), RandStringRunes(1024))
+	benchValues := values
+	for _, v := range values {
+		for i := 5; i < 50; i = i + 5 {
+			benchValues = append(benchValues, v+RandStringRunes(i))
+			benchValues = append(benchValues, RandStringRunes(i)+v+RandStringRunes(i))
+			benchValues = append(benchValues, RandStringRunes(i)+v)
+		}
+	}
 	for _, r := range regexes {
 		r := r
 		b.Run(r, func(b *testing.B) {