WATCH: Patti Smith awarded key to New York City

Iconic musician and author Patti Smith has been given the key to New York City by outgoing Mayor Bill De Blasio.

In a recent ceremony, Smith (whose music is synonymous with The City That Never Sleeps thanks to albums such as Horses) stated that she wished she "could give New York City the key to me, because that's how I feel about our city."

"With all its challenges and difficulties, it remains—and I'm quite a traveler—the most diverse city in the world," she added. "To receive this at 75, it makes me look even more forward to the next 25 years."

"This is an extraordinary pleasure and honor for me, because for any of us who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, there were many, many voices out there, many artists out there, many musicians out there, but there was only one Patti Smith," Mayor de Blasio said.

"To me, Patti Smith had an authenticity and has an authenticity that you just didn't find, in my view, that many other places—an ability to cut through all the swirl around us and speak some more profound truths."

Watch a video of Patti Smith receiving the key to New York City below.