diff --git a/mercurial/changelog.py b/mercurial/changelog.py
--- a/mercurial/changelog.py
+++ b/mercurial/changelog.py
@@ -82,10 +82,7 @@
 
 def encodeextra(d):
     # keys must be sorted to produce a deterministic changelog entry
-    items = [
-        _string_escape(b'%s:%s' % (k, pycompat.bytestr(d[k])))
-        for k in sorted(d)
-    ]
+    items = [_string_escape(b'%s:%s' % (k, d[k])) for k in sorted(d)]
     return b"\0".join(items)