diff --git a/litellm/proxy/common_utils/http_parsing_utils.py b/litellm/proxy/common_utils/http_parsing_utils.py
index 807b895bd03..6b3b06e4af6 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/common_utils/http_parsing_utils.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/common_utils/http_parsing_utils.py
@@ -263,8 +263,17 @@ def get_tags_from_request_body(request_body: dict) -> List[str]:
     """
     metadata_variable_name = get_metadata_variable_name_from_kwargs(request_body)
     metadata = request_body.get(metadata_variable_name, {})
-    tags_in_metadata: List[str] = metadata.get("tags", [])
-    tags_in_request_body: List[str] = request_body.get("tags", [])
-    combined_tags: List[str] = tags_in_metadata + tags_in_request_body
+    tags_in_metadata: Any = metadata.get("tags", [])
+    tags_in_request_body: Any = request_body.get("tags", [])
+    combined_tags: List[str] = []
+
+    ######################################
+    # Only combine tags if they are lists
+    ######################################
+    if isinstance(tags_in_metadata, list):
+        combined_tags.extend(tags_in_metadata)
+    if isinstance(tags_in_request_body, list):
+        combined_tags.extend(tags_in_request_body)
+    ######################################
     return [tag for tag in combined_tags if isinstance(tag, str)]