The last time Justin Bieber was at an awards show, he was booed off stage. That, he later explained to Jimmy Fallon, was the cause of the tearful end to his otherwise well-executed VMAs performance this year. “I just wasn’t expecting them to support me in the way that they did,” he said during his appearance on The Tonight Show.

Dominating the public eye since a very young age, the YouTube sensation has always been a polarizing figure. In recent years, he has almost become infamous, looked upon unfavorably by the majority of the public. It is not hard to understand why his team would be desperate for a new beginning, a clean comeback.

Enter “What Do You Mean,” the lead single off Bieber’s upcoming fourth studio album. The single is laid back and stylish with production that surpasses trendy and is slightly ahead of its time. Lacking big vocal runs and base-drops, it is minimal and not overdone, while still maintaining a catchy feel good enough to be blasted in your car with the windows down.

But it takes more than one decent single to kickstart a smooth comeback. Awards show performances are widely viewed, criticized, and debated. They can make or break a career and cannot be overstated. For Bieber, the pressure building up to the VMAs had to be immense.

Overall, his performance was solid and well-choreographed. “What Do You Mean” was quite minimal, yet still stylish. Bieber dressed in all black with his dancers in white, had good vocals, and never seemed to miss a beat. Not only did he impress the audience (no booing this time), but his set received rave reviews the next day from Billboard and Rolling Stone.

While far from being America’s golden child, Bieber has taken considerable steps to increase his favorability. “What Do You Mean” has raised the bar for all of his peers in the pop industry, while his 2015 VMA performance is certainly the first chapter in what will likely be a long and lucrative career. Like it or not, “What Do You Mean” proves that Bieber is here to stay.