Madonna suffered whiplash after stage fall

Madonna says she hit her head and suffered whiplash when she was yanked backward down some steps while performing live at the Brit Awards.

The dramatic tumble occurred Wednesday as the 56-year-old singer sang "Living For Love."

Madonna's dancers tugged at her flowing Armani cape, but instead of coming loose it dragged the singer down three steps. Madonna said the cape had been tied too tightly at the neck "and my two lovely Japanese dancers basically strangled me off the stage."

She told Britain's "Jonathan Ross Show:" "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 3 a.m., making sure I was still conscious."

"It was a horrible nightmare, because I like to be amazing," she added "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."

Madonna also explained what may have caused it: "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."

Excerpts from the interview were released Friday.