Madonna: 'Last minute set change was to blame for BRIT Awards fall'

Madonna has blamed a last-minute set change for her fall at the BRIT Awards last month (Feb15), insisting the scary stumble would not have happened if she'd rehearsed the opening of her performance properly.

She tells news show Extra! that a last-minute change from the director contributed to the mishap.

Madonna says, "At the last minute they decided, 'We don’t want you to go out in the middle of the crowd at all. You have to start from really far back and wear the big cape and do the long walk from much further than we had rehearsed'.

“Now this goes against everything I believe in because I don’t do anything live unless I rehearse it and I didn't rehearse that and so I panicked. I thought, 'OK, I can do this. Then they said, 'But we have to worry about the cape coming off because it’s a much further walk'. So at the very last minute they came up to me and said, 'Just tie it a little bit tighter, the bow around your neck'."

The Music singer was dragged backwards down a flight of steps when a dancer tugged at her Armani cape.

The pop star adds, "It was either die by strangulation or fall down the stairs. I chose the stairs... The angels were protecting me because nothing happened."