diff --git a/lib/client.js b/lib/client.js
index 54ab017cb..770f353d2 100644
--- a/lib/client.js
+++ b/lib/client.js
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ Client.prototype.end = function(cb) {
 };
 
 Client.md5 = function(string) {
-  return crypto.createHash('md5').update(string).digest('hex');
+  return crypto.createHash('md5').update(string, 'utf-8').digest('hex');
 };
 
 // expose a Query constructor