Andrew Ridgeley, Pepsi & Shirlie and … Chris Martin All Honoured George Michael at the Brits

In honour of last year becoming shorthand for "ffs, someone else culturally important has died", the Brits ran a sort of Powerpoint slideshow of the major people who we all lost. First, it started with George Michael, then Prince, running through George Martin, Viola Beach, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, and other men who passed away in 2016. Looking back at the worlds of pop and rock music this way, when you start to watch those who rose to fame in the 1960s and beyond drop off, it becomes clear how skewed music was towards men as performers and musicians, and women more as fans and eye candy.

But we're not at the stage yet where the biggest names have been of all genders, and have started to get to the age where their lives wind down. So in honour of George Michael's incredible legacy – and long history of dealing with an aggressively homophobic tabloid press – Andrew Ridgeley, Pepsi and Shirley, his three friends and past collaborators, spoke in tribute. "On Christmas Day 2016, the greatest singer-songwriter of his generation, an icon on his era and my beloved friend George Michael was lost," Ridgeley, the other half of Wham! said. "It felt like the sky had fallen in." He spoke of their time together, and how Michael learned to find his voice as a performer.

Shirlie then spoke about how his songwriting "became the seed from which his amazing, enthralling showmanship evolved", before Pepsi added that she and those around her "always knew George was destined to become a star in his own right". It was painful and genuinely touching, to watch people with such intimate connections to Michael speak about his memory. His death came at such a shock that many are still processing it – and that seemed to come to light when Shirlie had to pause briefly, as she teared up.

Chris Martin then turned up, doing a heartfelt rendition of Michael's "A Different Corner." In the middle of the performance, an old Michael interview ran on the big screens, in which the pop star spoke about how he didn't really want to be a star. Martin duetted with a recording of Michael, with people in the crowd waving their mobile phones with the torches turned on. All in all, even with the lad from Coldplay turning up, it was a sweet tribute. Martin definitely isn't the ideal candidate to honour an artist who wore his queerness and sexual vigour with a nonchalant pride throughout his life – there are few choices with a sweeter scent of vanilla than the heteronormative falsetto guy who used to date a film star, but there you go. Trying to deal with death on an evening normally devoted to glitter, patterned suits and the hopes that someone will do something silly enough for a good headline is tricky – but they pulled it off well.

You can find Tshepo worrying about Chris Martin on Twitter.