diff --git a/tools/perf/util/pmu.c b/tools/perf/util/pmu.c
index 2738fc8d200d..f321ce97d9ec 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/pmu.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/pmu.c
@@ -241,9 +241,11 @@ static int __perf_pmu__new_alias(struct list_head *list, char *dir, char *name,
 				 char *metric_expr,
 				 char *metric_name)
 {
+	struct parse_events_term *term;
 	struct perf_pmu_alias *alias;
 	int ret;
 	int num;
+	char newval[256];
 
 	alias = malloc(sizeof(*alias));
 	if (!alias)
@@ -262,6 +264,27 @@ static int __perf_pmu__new_alias(struct list_head *list, char *dir, char *name,
 		return ret;
 	}
 
+	/* Scan event and remove leading zeroes, spaces, newlines, some
+	 * platforms have terms specified as
+	 * event=0x0091 (read from files ../<PMU>/events/<FILE>
+	 * and terms specified as event=0x91 (read from JSON files).
+	 *
+	 * Rebuild string to make alias->str member comparable.
+	 */
+	memset(newval, 0, sizeof(newval));
+	ret = 0;
+	list_for_each_entry(term, &alias->terms, list) {
+		if (ret)
+			ret += scnprintf(newval + ret, sizeof(newval) - ret,
+					 ",");
+		if (term->type_val == PARSE_EVENTS__TERM_TYPE_NUM)
+			ret += scnprintf(newval + ret, sizeof(newval) - ret,
+					 "%s=%#x", term->config, term->val.num);
+		else if (term->type_val == PARSE_EVENTS__TERM_TYPE_STR)
+			ret += scnprintf(newval + ret, sizeof(newval) - ret,
+					 "%s=%s", term->config, term->val.str);
+	}
+
 	alias->name = strdup(name);
 	if (dir) {
 		/*
@@ -285,7 +308,7 @@ static int __perf_pmu__new_alias(struct list_head *list, char *dir, char *name,
 		snprintf(alias->unit, sizeof(alias->unit), "%s", unit);
 	}
 	alias->per_pkg = perpkg && sscanf(perpkg, "%d", &num) == 1 && num == 1;
-	alias->str = strdup(val);
+	alias->str = strdup(newval);
 
 	list_add_tail(&alias->list, list);