Madonna has explained how her dramatic fall at the Brit Awards came about. Speaking on the Jonathan Ross Show, the Queen of Pop said that due to the weight of the cape, it was tied tightly around her neck – meaning it was harder to undo during her performance. "I'm a creature of habit and I rehearse everything – everything, everything, everything – and I was thrown a wrench at the very beginning of my entrance," she said. "I was told to tie my cape and start much further back than we had rehearsed so because I had to walk so much further, everybody was worried that my cape was going to slide off because it’s quite heavy.
Madonna soldiered on with her performance following the fall
"So they tied it really tight around my neck. So here I am marching in like a queen and I got to the top of the stairs and I pulled my silky string and it would not come undone and my two lovely Japanese dancers basically strangled me off the stage. I had a choice, I could either be strangled or fall with the cape and I fell." Despite not wanting to watch the clip back during her appearance on Jonathan Ross's chat show, Madonna has been able to laugh at the incident and in particular how fitting the lyrics "Lifted me up, and watched me stumble, After the heartache, I'm gonna carry on" that she was singing at the time were. "I'm never writing lyrics like that again!" she laughed. "The universe was trying to teach me a lesson I guess.
The Queen of Pop revealed that the cape was tied too tightly because it was so heavy
"It was a horrible nightmare because I like to be amazing. Seriously I rehearse and I rehearse and I rehearse so that when I do the show, it's effortless and I create magic, and I did the opposite. I actually created a horror show for everyone." While the 56-year-old has been in high spirits about her unfortunate tumble, she did suffer from whiplash as a result of the fall. "I didn't hurt my butt, I hurt my head," she said. "I know how to fall, I've fallen off my horse many times and I tucked and I have good core strength... but the thing is, I had a little bit of a whiplash and I smacked the back of my head so there was a man standing over me with a flashlight until about 3am making sure that I was still compos mentis."