diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/components/QueryEditor/AnnotationQueryEditor.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/components/QueryEditor/AnnotationQueryEditor.tsx
index 60d12b10cf4..413decf565e 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/components/QueryEditor/AnnotationQueryEditor.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/components/QueryEditor/AnnotationQueryEditor.tsx
@@ -23,9 +23,15 @@ export function ElasticsearchAnnotationsQueryEditor(props: Props) {
         <ElasticSearchQueryField
           value={annotation.target?.query}
           onChange={(query) => {
+            const currentTarget = annotation.target ?? { refId: 'annotation_query' };
+            const newTarget = {
+              ...currentTarget,
+              query,
+            };
+
             onAnnotationChange({
               ...annotation,
-              query,
+              target: newTarget,
             });
           }}
         />
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
index e1d887b9f6f..1bfc8aa9eb3 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
@@ -257,7 +257,17 @@ export class ElasticDatasource
     const annotation = options.annotation;
     const timeField = annotation.timeField || '@timestamp';
     const timeEndField = annotation.timeEndField || null;
-    const queryString = annotation.query;
+
+    // the `target.query` is the "new" location for the query.
+    // normally we would write this code as
+    // try-the-new-place-then-try-the-old-place,
+    // but we had the bug at
+    // https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/61107
+    // that may have stored annotations where
+    // both the old and the new place are set,
+    // and in that scenario the old place needs
+    // to have priority.
+    const queryString = annotation.query ?? annotation.target?.query;
     const tagsField = annotation.tagsField || 'tags';
     const textField = annotation.textField || null;