If you haven’t already heard, it looks like America’s favorite performance artist Lady Gaga — she of the fashion envelope pushing — is definitely ineligible to for a Best New Artist Grammy when the nominees for 2009 are announced early next year despite reports to the contrary. Why, you ask? Because she was already nominated last year for “Just Dance” back when her only fans were clubgoers and the gays. Gaga lost then to Daft Punk, but she’s poised to be a major contender this year in other categories if not a shoo-in for the category she lost in 2008.

As for the gaping hole in the Best New Artist category that she leaves behind? Here’s a look at the acts we’ll be rooting for when nominations are announced.

Drake

With his smooth beats, Toronto street-cred, and claim to fame as a cast member on Degrassi: The Next Generation it seems like Aubrey “Drake” Graham is definitely a contender for BNA. His freshman album featured the likes of Lil Wayne and sparked comparisons to Kanye West. Couple that with the fact that we’ve never had a rapper win in this category and it looks like this teen star from our neighbor to the north just may have a shot at something other than a Juno Award.

Adam Lambert

If anyone might be able to hold a candle to the kind of out-there antics that have made Gaga such a hard act to replace in this category, then it most certainly would be the Glambert. With his second-place finish on American Idol safe in the hands of pop culture irrelevance — along with his season’s winner Kris “Took Me Five Whole Minutes To Remember His Name” Allen — and pre-sales of his debut album (out today) making record numbers, we know that this guy has definitely got a shot at a win in this category. Let’s just hope that if he does make it to the Grammys that he’ll bring just as much of his crazy with him as he did last night at the AMAs.

The Dirty Projectors / Grizzly Bear

Brooklyn hipsters the borough over might balk at either of these bands being nominated because, well, technically they aren’t new. Despite the fact that both bands have a couple of albums under their belt, no one will deny that the releases of Veckatimest and Bitte Orca brought both indie acts into the mainstream and to the attention of Grammy voters, for better or worse.

Leighton Meester

C’mon. Did you really think we wouldn’t include Blair Waldorf? When someone on a hit TV show starts her music career off by appearing on a top-ten single, singing on-stage with a legendary rock band, and collaborating with the likes of Kara DioGuardi and Lil Wayne you can’t just leave her out.