With Mike Garson on piano, Gail Anne Dorsey on bass, Gerry Leonard and Earl Slick on guitars, they delivered a dark, moody rendering of a big, complex song of one of that classic that was all the more emotional for its sense of dignity and restraint.

Lady Gaga at the Grammys last week went so over the top, her ridiculous mash-up of 10 hits turned into a Bowie cabaret medley that was really all about Gaga, putting the focus on costume changes and digital computer effects sponsored by Intel.

At the Brits the focus was all on the song – and on Bowie himself. An awards ceremony that usually likes comedians and models to present awards and cuts off musicians in the middle of acceptance speeches, actually let a couple of people who knew what they were talking about speak at length and in depth about Bowie.

Annie Lennox got words and phrases into her speech that have surely never been heard at a Brits ceremony before. Bowie’s close friend, the actor Gary Oldman picked up an icon gong on his behalf, and told us about how Bowie broke the bad news of terminal cancer to him, but added the good news: “I’ve got my cheekbones back.”

Then an elegantly trouser-suited Lorde got up and sang with a trembling intensity that brought a song written 35 years before she was even born to vivid life. The parting shot of Bowie saluting was heartbreaking.

Both Lady Gaga and Lorde represented interesting choices to pay tribute as artists working in some part of the wide field Bowie made his own. Gaga harks back to the androgyny and sci-fi outlandishness of his glam years, yet is somehow too strenuously pop and eagerly careerist to really represent Bowie’s outsider strangeness.

She is a fascinating pop star but sometimes she just seems to try too hard. Lorde was chosen because Oldman told her Bowie was a big fan and called her “the future of music”. It was easy on this evidence to understand why.

From the outset, the teenager has come at music from her own angle, with a core of arty individuality and internal conviction rarely found in mainstream commercial pop. She sang that wonderful, mysterious song as if it came from somewhere deep inside.

The Brits Awards are often compared unfavourably to the usually more star-studded and spectacular American Grammy awards, but there are some occasions when a little modesty, restraint and seriousness beats any big budget extravaganza.