diff --git a/swift/common/middleware/tempurl.py b/swift/common/middleware/tempurl.py
index a97bd95e31..c2655883f8 100644
--- a/swift/common/middleware/tempurl.py
+++ b/swift/common/middleware/tempurl.py
@@ -97,9 +97,8 @@ from urllib import urlencode
 from urlparse import parse_qs
 
 from swift.proxy.controllers.base import get_account_info
-from swift.common.swob import HeaderKeyDict
-from swift.common.utils import split_path
-from swift.common.swob import HTTPUnauthorized
+from swift.common.swob import HeaderKeyDict, HTTPUnauthorized
+from swift.common.utils import split_path, get_valid_utf8_str
 
 
 #: Default headers to remove from incoming requests. Simply a whitespace
@@ -136,7 +135,7 @@ def get_tempurl_keys_from_metadata(meta):
       meta = get_account_info(...)['meta']
       keys = get_tempurl_keys_from_metadata(meta)
     """
-    return [value for key, value in meta.iteritems()
+    return [get_valid_utf8_str(value) for key, value in meta.iteritems()
             if key.lower() in ('temp-url-key', 'temp-url-key-2')]
 
 
diff --git a/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempurl.py b/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempurl.py
index 86d5b8934f..580f617dc0 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempurl.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempurl.py
@@ -803,6 +803,12 @@ class TestTempURL(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertTrue('test-header-yes' not in hdrs)
         self.assertTrue('test-header-yes-this' in hdrs)
 
+    def test_unicode_metadata_value(self):
+        meta = {"temp-url-key": "test", "temp-url-key-2": u"test2"}
+        results = tempurl.get_tempurl_keys_from_metadata(meta)
+        for str_value in results:
+            self.assertTrue(isinstance(str_value, str))
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()