David Bowie Tribute: Son Says Lorde’s Brits Homage Was ‘Beautiful’ After Slamming Lady Gaga’s Last Week

David Bowie’s son said Lorde’s tribute to his father at the Brits on Wednesday was “beautiful.”

Lorde, who is only 19, performed a simple, sober, and powerful version of “Life on Mars” on stage, alongside musicians who played alongside David Bowie for decades.

Duncan Jones, the late singer’s son who recently announced he was expecting his first child, tweeted and thanked the New Zealand songstress for her homage to his superstar father.

Lorde’s tribute to Bowie was immediately compared with Lady Gaga’s, who sang her own at last week’s Grammys. Gaga’s performance was slammed all over social media, including by Jones. For many, the singer’s medley of 10 songs was not appropriate and was not fitting, the Telegraph reported.

Finally found the links to tonight’s Brits. Just… beautiful. Thank you.

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) February 25, 2016

Lorde’s performance was restrained and dignified, and the young star was not trying to imitate the legendary singer, but rather stuck with her own style. Lorde, who Bowie called the future of music, admired him very much and recently said in her Facebook tribute to him that meeting him helped her accept herself.

“I realized I was proud of my spiky strangeness because he had been proud of his.”

David Bowie’s old friend, actor Gary Oldman, picked up an icon award on his behalf before making an emotional speech about the singer, as the Irish Examiner reported.

“Even in dire circumstances, when he wrote to tell me the bad news he had cancer, he added, ‘The good news is I’ve got cheekbones back.’ He was the sweetest soul ever, with the best cheekbones, until it was done,” Oldman told the audience at the Brits.

Lorde then took to the stage in a classy outfit and delivered an excellent and moving performance. The “Royals” singer, whose next album is highly anticipated, once confessed what happened the night she met David Bowie.

They met in November 2013, at Tilda Swinton’s birthday party. Speaking to Rookie, Lorde described how Bowie compared listening to her music with “listening to tomorrow.” Pretty poetic, right?

Lorde added that she and Bowie were holding hands and staring into each others’ eye as she described the moment. She said she felt her life had come full circle.

So it seems fitted that the singer, who’s often spoken of her teenage angst, feeling like an outsider, and being weird, was chosen to celebrate Bowie, the icon who was himself a symbol for outsiders and iconoclasts.

Reaching fame at only 16 in 2013 with her best-selling single “Royals,” Lorde has always defended her own style, avoiding commercial pop at all costs. Her rendition of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” was a great way to affirm her individuality while giving a fitting tribute to a legend.

Before Lorde took the stage, a band composed of David Bowie’s own backing band performed a medley of Bowie’s major hits, including “Space Oddity” and “Rebel Rebel.”

Mike Garson, who joined Bowie on the keyboard in 1972, replied to Jones’ compliment on Twitter and also praised Lorde’s attitude.

.@ManMadeMoon We worked 100 hours to get tonight right. And @lorde was a dream to work with. We adored her respectfulness to your dad.

— Mike Garson (@mikegarson) 25 February 2016

Watch Gary Oldman’s emotional speech below.

So what did you think? Was Lorde’s tribute to David Bowie better than Lady Gaga’s?

[Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images]